220 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



part of the Northwest, while shippers in London and 

 Liverpool made public exhibitions of the consignments 

 sent abroad before and after the first National apple 

 show in Spokane last December, when 6,000,000 apples, 

 most of them grown under irrigation, were gathered 

 together under one roof. 



The primary purpose of the show was to encourage 

 the growing of apples not alone in the Pacific North- 

 west, but all over the continent where the fruit can be 

 raised profitably. The second purpose was to create a 

 demand for high-grade, healthy fruit and to educate 

 the consumer to expect only the best, thus stimulating 

 the growers to place better and cleaner fruit and more 

 of it on the market. The movement was on broad lines 

 and its effect is now being felt, so much so that the pre- 

 liminary work is already under way for the second Na- 

 tional show, early next December, under the direction of 

 Ren H. Rice, secretary and manager. 



E. F. Cartier Van Dissel, vice-president and chair- 

 man of the board of directors, announces that the next 

 show will be on a more pretentious scale than in 1908, 

 when there were several hundred exhibitors from va- 

 rious parts of the American continent, including New 

 York, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, 

 Colorado, New Mexico, California, Washington, Oregon, 

 Montana, Idaho, Utah, Prince Edward Island, British 

 Columbia and Ontario, who carried off prizes of a total 

 value of $35,000. Mr. Van Dissel added : 



"Three interests were at stake in the show: The 

 apple grower, the public and the apple buyer. All of 

 them were satisfied with the results, which alone stamps 

 the National apple show as a success. From an educa- 

 tional standpoint, unquestionably its most important 

 one, the show was invaluable to growers. It is safe to 

 say that none of the exhibitors or apple growers pres- 

 ent ever before came in contact with such magnificent 

 and varied displays of apples, gathered from such a 

 wide territory. 



"The East, the South, the Southwest and the 

 Northwest were all represented. Growers were brought 

 into contact with each other and afforded that inter- 

 change of ideas which is essential to success. Buyers 

 were present in numbers to get acquainted with the 

 growers and with the merits of the different sections of 

 the country represented. From the standpoint of the 

 public, the show was equally valuable. It gave the 

 thousands of people who attended it a better idea of the 

 apple and encouraged its use as a food. It was the 

 unanimous verdict at the close that the National apple 

 show was a great success and should be repeated, as it 

 will be next December." 



For reasons that have never been satisfactorily ex- 

 plained the apple industry has been decreasing rapidly 

 in the districts east of the Rocky Mountains since 1895, 

 and if it were not for the great activity of the growers 

 and the opening of thousands of acres of orchard" lands 

 in the western country the people of the United States 

 would be obliged to import the king of fruit. As it is, 

 the entire crop for domestic purposes last year was only 

 25,000,000 barrels, or a little more than a peck per cap- 

 ita of the population of the United States. 



To show the decrease in the production of apples 

 in the Union in the last twelve years, these statistics, 

 compiled by the federal Department of Agriculture, are 

 quoted : 



Growers produced 60,540,000 barrels in 1895, and 



69,070,000 barrels in 1896, the banner year in the his- 

 tory of the country. There was a decrease of nearly 

 28,000,000 barrels or more than the entire crop in 

 1897, when the yield amount to 41,536,000. Another 

 decrease followed in 1898, the yield being placed at 

 23,570,000 barrels, but in 1899 and 1900, there were 

 substantial increases, placed at 37,560,000 and 47,960,- 

 000 barrels, respectively. 



There was a drop of 20,890,000 barrels in 1901, 

 while in 1902 there was an increase of 20,655,000 

 barrels, the crop being estimated at 47,625,000 barrels. 

 Forty-five million barrels of fruit was produced in 1903, 

 and in 1904 the yield was 300,000 barrels greater. Then, 

 in 1905, it dropped to 23,500,000 barrels, and in 1906 

 it increased to 36,130,000 barrels. The crop of 1907 

 fell off to 25,000,000 barrels, which was the estimated 

 yield for 1908. The total yield for the 13 years amounts 

 to 559,761,000 barrels, or 1,679,283,000 bushels. 



That the decreases in the eastern states have en- 

 couraged the growers west of the Rocky mountains is 

 probably best exemplified in the State of Washington, 

 where, according to statistics compiled by F. A. Hunt- 

 ley, commissioner of horticulture, there were growing 

 at the beginning of 1909, 7,677,072 apple, 2,126,222 

 peach, 1,313,290 pear, 1,238,491 plum and prune, and 

 938,744 cherry trees, in addition to several million 

 nectarine, quince, almond and English walnut trees. 

 The total acreage, including that used for small fruit, 

 is approximately 227,500 acres. This includes 2,500 

 acres of grapes, 2,400 acres of raspberriees, 2,000 acres 

 of blackberries, 9,000 acres of strawberries, 675 acres of 

 currants and gooseberries and 350 acres of cranberries, 

 besides thousands of acres of irrigated and nonirrigated 

 lands devoted to melon and garden-truck fanning. 



A census of the trees on the three leading counties 

 gives the following result at the beginning of 1909 : 



Yakima 2,115,695 apple, 667,704 pear, 857,300 

 peach, 179,166 cherry and 24,081 plum and prune trees. 



Chelan 1,138,012 apple, 77,407 pear, 338,073 

 peach, 54,565 cherry and 8,212 plum and prune trees. 



Spokane 967,197 apple, 54,707 pear, 154,323 

 peach, 163,324 cherry and 40,843 plum and prune trees. 



The total number of trees planted in the State of 

 Washington in 1908 was 2,067,853, as follows : Apple, 

 1,169,989; pear, 230,719; peach, 366,731; cherry 

 190,535 ; plum and prune, 70,200 ; miscellaneous, 39,679, 

 and of these 399,553, or 25 per cent of the grand total, 

 were planted in Spokane County, while Yakima County 

 reported 358,477 and Chelan County was third with 

 301,784. 



Experienced fruit growers in the Yakima, We- 

 natchee and Spokane valleys recommend the planting 

 of one-year-old trees, grown in local nurseries, while 

 others prefer two-year-old trees. The cost of planting 

 in Eastern Washington ranges from 10 to 30 cents 

 each, while the cost of the trees is from fl2 to $18 a 

 hundred, according to age, pear trees cost from $20 to 

 $30 a hundred, while cherry trees range in price from 

 $25 to $35 a hundred. The cost of preparing the land 

 for planting ranges from $8 an acre for cropped to $20 

 an acre for cleared but not broken land. 



X 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age 

 1 year, and the Primer of Irrigation 



