172 FRUIT RANCHING. 



and question the correctness of the information which 

 has been given to him. I say " for a time," because 

 after he has had an opportunity to visit an orchard 

 actually in bearing, and has witnessed the cherry 

 trees in bloom, the plum trees with the fruit hanging 

 on them as thick as ropes of onions, the pear trees 

 trailing their branches on the ground through sheer 

 inability to hold up their load of fruit, even after 

 they have been thinned, and has studied the apples 

 colouring day after day under the bright autumn 

 sunshine — well, how can he be sceptical after that? 

 I will confess that I, too, had my hour of unbelief. 

 I saw, admired, and was tempted by the gloriously- 

 coloured, beautifully-graded, splendidly-packed fruit 

 exhibited by the Provincial Government of British 

 Columbia at Westminster. I had already become 

 interested in the Nelson district of the Kootenays, 

 and, in consequence, paid particular attention to two 

 collections of apples sent from that locality. The 

 first thing I did after reaching Nelson was to pay 

 a visit to each of the ranches on which those collec- 

 tions of apples were grown. I candidly acknowledge 

 that I was disappointed in both. Yet, after I became 

 better acquainted with the country, disappointment 

 so far wore away that I actually bought one of the 

 two ranches in question, namely, Welland Ranch, on 

 which I am at this present moment living; and, what 

 is more, I would not now^ sell it for double the price 

 I paid; and I say this notwithstanding that it is far 

 from being all that a model fruit ranch ought to be. 

 The facts which have brought me round to this 

 opinion I will now proceed to state, and later to 

 amplify. 



