2280 NORTH AMERICAN STATES 



NORTH AMERICAN STATES 



black-spot canker, and brown-rot are the most common. 

 There are a few physiological diseases that appear in 

 the orchards. Most of these seem to be due to lack of 

 adaptation of the plant to the peculiar soil conditions 

 of the district. The most common spray materials in 

 use are lime-sulfur, bordeaux mixture, nicotine sulfate 

 and crude-oil emulsion. 



The large orchard planting in Washington has been 

 induced by the great profit made by the owners of the 

 oldest orchards in the state. Between 1901 and 1911, 

 many orchards yielded crops that netted their owners 

 profits of several hundred dollars an acre. Heavy 

 orchard planting followed. The extremely high price 

 received for the apple before 1912 still left good profits 

 after deducing high freight rates. The increased crop 

 and reduced price has made the marketing problem a 

 very difficult one. The organization of cooperative 

 selling associations began about 1907, although some 

 small organizations were in operation before that date. 

 The cooperative canneries were among the first to start 

 and the first to fail. The Puyallup-Sumner Fruit Asso- 

 ciation is one of the oldest and most successful organi- 

 zations of its kind in the state. This organization owns 

 and operates its own canning plant and handles approx- 

 imately 95 per cent of the berry crop of that section. 

 The organization is composed primarily of berry- 

 growers. The Yakima Valley Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion is a cooperative organization that sells fresh fruit 

 only. This is the largest and one of the oldest local 

 organizations in the state. There are now several sim- 

 ilar organizations. The North Pacific Fruit Distributors 

 is the largest cooperative organization in the state. It 

 is composed of several affiliated local organizations. It 

 is a selling agency only and does not attempt to do any 

 of the work of the local organizations. Each local 

 organization has its own brands and advertising methods 

 and to a large extent its own set of rules for grading 

 and packing. The f. o. b. sales at origin of the ship- 

 ment are most desired by the grower, as the consign- 

 ment shipments have very frequently failed to return 

 a reasonable price to the grower. 



Public-service agencies for horticulture. 



The Land-Grant college of Washington is located at 

 Pullman and was established in 1890. The institution 

 is known as the State College of Washington. The 

 Experiment Station is a department of the College and 

 is located at the same place. At the present time there 

 are seven men on the staff of the department, four 

 doing college work only, and two connected only with 

 the Experiment Station; the head of the department 

 works in both College and Experiment Station. Since 

 the establishment of the Experiment Station, fourteen 

 bulletins have been published by the horticultural de- 

 partment. Several of these have been popular bulletins. 



There are no special schools in this state teaching 

 horticulture at the present time. Horticulture is taught 

 in most of the high-schools in the state. Brief attention 

 is given to it in the normal schools as a part of the 

 agricultural course. 



The extension work in horticulture is done by 

 members of the Horticultural Department. Lectures, 

 farmers' institutes, movable schools, and the conduct- 

 ing of correspondence courses in horticulture are the 

 principal lines of activity. 



The State Department of Agriculture has a sub- 

 division of horticulture. The head of that division is 

 known as Commissioner of Horticulture and all of the 

 inspection work of the state is directly under his super- 

 vision. The state is divided into five inspection dis- 

 tricts with district inspectors in charge. 



The Washington State Horticultural Society is an 

 organization of the fruit-growers of the entire state. 

 Practically all of the members, however, reside east of 

 the Cascade Mountains. The Western Washington 

 Horticultural Society is an organization of the fruit- 



growers residing west of the Cascades. The special 

 interest of this society is for the promotion of the fruit- 

 growing industry in western Washington. Fruit-grow- 

 ing unions and commercial organizations exist in every 

 fruit-growing section of the state. 



Statistics (Thirteenth Census). 



The approximate land area of Washington in 1910 

 was reported as 42,775,040 acres. The land in farms 

 was 27.4 per cent of the land area, or 11,712,235 acres. 

 Of this land in farms, the improved land numbers 

 6,373,311 acres; the woodland, 1,541,551 acres; and 

 other unimproved land in farms, 3,797,373 acres. The 

 number of all the farms in the state in 1910 was 56,- 

 192 and the average acreage to a farm 208.4. [The 

 total area is 69,127 square miles.] 



The leading agricultural crops of the state are cereals, 

 and hay and forage. The acreage of cereals increased 

 from 1,350,897 in 1899 to 2,591,582 in 1909, when the 

 production was valued at $44,762,138, which was 56.7 

 per cent of the total value of all crops. Hay and 

 forage increased in acreage from 497,139 in 1899 to 

 742,137 in 1909, when the production was valued at 

 $17,147,648, or 21.7 per cent of the total value of all 

 crops. The value of forest products of farms was 

 $3,754,293 in 1909, as compared with $1,002,126 in 1899. 



Horticultural crops produced in Washington are 

 fruits and nuts, small-fruits, vegetables, including 

 potatoes, and flowers and plants and nursery products. 

 The value of the fruits and nuts produced in 1909 was 

 $4,329,058, as compared with $1,027,539 in 1899. 

 Small-fruits increased in acreage from 2,845 in 1899 to 

 5,508 in 1909, when the production was 13,490,930 

 quarts, valued at $941,415. The total acreage of 

 potatoes and other vegetables in 1909 was 82,312 and 

 their value $5,982,665. Excluding potatoes, the acreage 

 of other vegetables increased from 13,848 in 1899 to 

 24,410 in 1909, when the production was valued at 

 $2,988,510. Flowers and plants and nursery products 

 increased in acreage from 189 in 1899 to 1,682 in 1909, 

 when the production was valued at $1,044,907. 



The total quantity of orchard-fruits produced in 



1909 was 4,244,670 bushels, valued at $4,274,124. 

 Apples contributed considerably more than half of this 

 quantity and plums and prunes most of the remainder. 

 The apple trees of bearing age in 1910 numbered 

 3,009,337; those not of bearing age, 4,862,702. The 

 production of apples in 1909 was 2,672,100 bushels, 

 valued at $2,925,761. Plum and prune trees of bearing 

 age in 1910 numbered 823,082; those not of bearing 

 age, 122,912, and the production in 1909 was 1,032,077 

 bushels, valued at $600,503. Pear trees of bearing age 

 in 1910 numbered 290,676; those not of bearing age, 

 617,754, and the production in 1909 was 310,804 bushels, 

 valued at $328,895. Cherry trees of bearing age in 



1910 numbered 241,038; those not of bearing age, 

 229,067, and the production in 1909 was 131,392 bushels, 

 valued at $278, 547. Peach and nectarine trees of bear- 

 ing age in 1910 numbered 536,875; those not of bearing 

 age, 1,028,141, and the production in 1909 was 84,494 

 bushels, valued at $118,918. Other orchard-fruits pro- 

 duced in 1909 were: 10,789 bushels of apricots, valued at 

 $17,280; and 3,008 bushels of quinces, valued at $4,198. 



The production of grapes in 1909 was 1,704,005 

 pounds, as compared with 1,194,700 pounds, the pro- 

 duction in 1899. The value of the grapes produced in 

 1909 was $51,412. The number of vines of bearing age 

 in 1910 was 322,007; those not of bearing age, 371,733. 



The production of nuts in 1909 was 65,441 pounds, 

 valued at $3,522. The more important of the nuts 

 produced were: 16,450 pounds of English or Persian 

 walnuts, valued at $2,241; 43,438 pounds of black 

 walnuts, valued at $687; and 770 pounds of almonds, 

 valued at $86. 



Strawberries are by far the most important of the 

 small-fruits produced in Washington, with raspberries 



