146 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



fact being emigrants from New England. One is struck by 

 the fact that many who have made the greatest success there, 

 were not originally fruit growers or trained in any line of 

 agriculture. Again, the one interest of the valley is fruit, — 

 go into an\- Ijank or commercial club and they talk fruit. It 

 is the one item of conversation unless you talk fruit land. If 

 ycu talk the latter, you will hnd plenty to talk with a'ou. 



You will find no "neglected orchards'' problem there. The 

 care and thoroughness with which they attend to every detail 

 is the lesson for us to absorb. Everybody sprays and no pest 

 is allowed to gain a foothold ; if the grower was inclined to be 

 negligent the county inspector would soon bring him to terms 

 or cut down his orchard. Everybody thins their fruit, once, 

 twice, three or four times, if necessary. Is it any wonder that 

 the per cent of box fruit sometimes amounts to ninety per cent 

 of the total ? All the trees are regularly pruned with a rather 

 open center to allow sunlight to get through, though there is 

 no special system. 



While Hood River grows fine apples and her Spitzen- 

 bergs and Yellow Newtowns are world famous, I consider it 

 a result of organization, co-operation, and systematic grading 

 and packing, rather than any special locality advantages which 

 we are prone to assume. Everything is figured to a system, 

 the grower is taught to pick and handle his fruit carefully, but 

 is not allowed to pack it himself. When the fruit is ready the 

 union sends the packer there. The packer must have a union 

 license and be registered. Each box has the packer's nimiber, 

 the grower's name, the variety, and the number of apples. 

 When brought to the union a rigid inspection is made before 

 it is allowed to be shipped out and if any imperfection is 

 found, it is rejected. 



A't Wenatchee, Washington, I found climatic conditions 

 very similar in character to those of Kelowna, British Colum- 

 bia, in fact, W^enatchee is in the lower part of the Okanagan 

 Valley. The oldest orchards are not more than nine years 

 old, most of them only six or seven years old. It is almost a 

 rainless country and irrigation is absolutelv essential to the 



