FRUIT GROWING IN THE WEST 



By J. Lewis Ellsworth, Secretary Mass. State Board of Agri- 

 culture. 



In discussing this subject I want to give my impressions of 

 fruit growing in the Northwest — Washington and Oregon — 

 to discuss our eastern fruit somewhat and, if time permits, to 

 say something in regard to the New England Fruit Show and 

 what it did for the fruit grower in New England. A year ago 

 I went to the Pacific Northwest with the Worcester Board of 

 Trade. My own particular mission was to represent the State 

 at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Farmers' 

 Institute Workers, at Portland, Oregon. We had a most 

 pleasant trip, one that I am sure all those who took it will long 

 remember. While in those States I made several side trips to 

 the leading fruit growing districts and a somewhat careful 

 investigation into their methods of culture, packing and selling. 



The first stop that I made in the fruit growing region was at 

 Wenatchee, Washington. This district is a great advertiser, 

 flooding the East with booklets, maps, and colored leaflets, all 

 setting forth the praises of the district as a fruit growing center. 

 On leaving the train the first thing you will notice will be a 

 great electric apple hung across the street. The first resident 

 had been there less than twelve years, but they had churches, 

 public buildings, business blocks, and everything that goes 

 to make up a thriving young city. One of the early residents 

 took me out to see his apple orchard of ten acres. He came from 

 St. Louis and called himself an Eastern man, and I suppose 

 that if he had come from Colorado he w^ould have been a 

 Southern man. He had a very fine orchard and had just com- 

 pleted one of his numerous sprayings. I asked him if they 

 had any insects and he replied in the negative. He said that 

 they sprayed the trees because it made them grow better, but 



