SOME RESULTS. 181 



My own experience, in the cases of trees 

 of various ages from five to ten years, all taken 

 together in the lump, is that they give an 

 average gross yield of $350-$400 (£70-£80) per acre, 

 with an addition for strawberries growing among 

 (say) one-half of them. Mr. T. W. Stirling, of 

 Kelowna, on the Okanagan Lake, has stated his 

 return for apples alone from a nine-year-old orchard 

 at $150 (£30) net. And this is approximately the 

 amount at which Mr. R. M. Palmer, Deputy-Minister 

 of Agriculture for the Province of British Columbia, 

 estimates the net annual profit per acre for an orchard 

 nine years old, his figures being $125 (£25) to $150 

 (£30). In the case of one four-year-old orchard on 

 Kootenay Lake, the gross yield in the first year of 

 bearing amounted to an average of $75 (£15) per 

 acre, and to this there is to be added the much more 

 valuable crop of strawberries, which would average 

 from $250 to $500 (£50 to £100) per acre. Another 

 orchard of 40 acres yielded when the trees were four 

 years old $4 (16s.) per tree, or $200 (£40) per acre, 

 this being their first crop. 



How heavily strawberries do yield in the 

 Kootenays is proved by the statistics kept by Mr. 

 E. L Wigen, of Creston, near the southern end of 

 Kootenay Lake. In a letter to me, in which he 

 courteously places his results at my disposal, he 

 says: " In the season of 1905 I had only 1 1-5 acre 

 in fruiting, which brought a gross return of $1,300 

 (£260), or net result of $800 (£160). [This gives an 

 average of $1,083 (£217) gross and $667 (£133) net 

 per acre.] For the season of 1906 I had three acres 

 in fruiting, but this being the year when the straw- 



