162 FRUIT RANCHING. 



to even tender fruit trees. From this it is not un- 

 reasonable to infer that fruit trees will succeed in 

 ahiiost any situation and aspect, provided only they 

 can command the advantage of shehering mountains, 

 and lliat, with proper precautions observed, the risk 

 of loss or injury from spring or autumn frosts is very 

 slight. 



For suitable land, enjoying favourable facilities 

 for transportation, the incoming fruit grower must 

 make up his mind that he will, under existing con- 

 ditions, have to pay about $100 (£20) per acre, and 

 that will be for uncleared, unimproved fruit land. 

 Improved or partly cultivated land will cost at the 

 rate of $200 (£40) per acre and upwards. Apples 

 and cherries thrive well on high land with a good 

 slope, pears and plums succeed on lower and moister 

 soils; but in all cases thorough drainage is indis- 

 pensable. Light, peaty soil suits no kind of fruit. 

 For apples, cherries, and peaches, it is better to avoid 

 the low^ bottom land, generally black in colour, in 

 the floor of the valleys. Fir-covered slopes are to be 

 preferred, or, in other words, it is wiser to plant 

 apples, cherries, and peaches on what is known as 

 bench land, or the higher slopes at the sides of the 

 valleys. If the fruit grower buys bottom land, he 

 will have to incur the additional expense of drainage, 

 for fruit trees absolutely will not thrive on land that 

 is in any degree water-logged. I have myself wit- 

 nessed the cutting down and grubbing up of a planta- 

 tion of plum trees in this province of British 

 Columbia on the cogent plea that for years in succes- 

 sion they had yielded a continuously diminishing 

 return, when as an actual fact the only thing that was 



