PROSPECTS. 193 



then had them laid out as a fruit ranch. " In the 

 Kootenay district," wrote a prominent citizen of 

 Nelson recently (1908), "the average price of unim- 

 proved land is about $50 per acre. Good fruit land 

 under cultivation, clear of stumps and stones, so that 

 it may be cultivated by horse power, is worth from 

 $150 to $250 per acre." 



Mr. Cockle, of Kaslo, says (1908): "Subdivided 

 blocks of ten acres, free from rock, command $75 to 

 $100 per acre. A few small tracts of cultivated 

 orchards are to be had, and the price varies from 

 $300 per acre up. Exception has been taken to the 

 value placed by holders on the land; but the best 

 evidence that prices are not inflated is found in the 

 fact that at the recent Government land sale at 

 Creston prices far in advance of those asked by dealers 

 were obtained, and in many cases the purchaser was a 

 local man, thoroughly posted as to the values." 



The land at Creston, near the southern extremity 

 of Kootenay Lake, which was sold at public auction 

 in November, fetched from $20 to $150 per acre. 

 This was uncleared, unbroken land belonging to the 

 British Columbia Government, and the sale w^as 

 attended by many buyers from the fruit-growing dis- 

 tricts of the United States. The purchasers, how- 

 ever, were nearly all local men, men who knew the true 

 value of the land, and were not deceived or misled by 

 any puffery of the enterprising real-estate agent. 



Orcharding is a delightful occupation ; but it is 

 not an indolent life. No man can sit on his verandah 

 all day and expect his ranch to buy him bread and 

 cheese. Fruit-growing means work — solid, hard 

 work — work from the first glinting of the dawn to the 



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