SOME RESULTS. 175 



After these severe tests, the superlative excellence 

 of British Columbia apples cannot for one moment 

 be doubted. 



The next subject for inquiry is the commercial 

 aspects of fruit growing. Can fruit growing be made 

 to pay ? Is it possible to grow apples, and, of course, 

 other fruit, at a profit? Can a man, after buying his 

 land, clearing and planting it, and then waiting for 

 his trees to grow up to the bearing stage — can he 

 hope to make a good living out of the fruit they 

 yield? Finally, to pass from the general to the 

 particular, can fruit growing be carried on as a com- 

 mercial success in British Columbia? 



As an answer to these questions, I will first quote 

 precise results which have actually been accomplished 

 in the famous fruit-growing districts of the Western 

 United States — districts in which the conditions do 

 not differ materially from those in the fruit-growing 

 districts of British Columbia; and finally I will add 

 similar facts and figures gathered from various parts 

 of British Columbia itself. 



First, as regards apples. From the Wenatchee 

 Valley, in the State of Washington, I have before 

 me gross returns per acre ranging from $100 (£20) 

 to $825 (£165); from the Yakima Valley, Washing- 

 ton, similar returns ranging from $186 (£37) to 

 $2,288.50 (£457 10s.); from the Rogue River Valley, 

 Oregon, from $157 (£31) to $1,143 (£229); and from 

 Hood River, Oregon, from $567 (£113) to $1,420 

 (£284). One series of returns, furnished by Mr. 

 A. D. Helm, of Rogue River, Oregon, for an orchard 

 of seven acres, extends over a period of seven years; 

 the average gross returns for those seven years were 



