66 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
The Oldest Orchard in the Yakima 
Valley 
Since the Yakima valley, Washington, 
on account of the quality of the soil, its 
climate, and the immense area that is 
capable of being cultivated to fruits, is 
already a great fruit growing district, we 
devote some space to a peculiar charac- 
teristic of the soil and climate which 
has recently been discovered. 
It has been supposed that the oldest 
orchards in the valley were planted about 
1875 or 1876; since about that time per- 
manent settlements began to be made, 
homes to be built, and family orchards 
to be planted. At this time there was no 
thought of growing commercial fruits for 
eastern markets, and ordinarily these or- 
chards were selected by men without ex- 
perience in orcharding, varieties being 
chosen to suit the tastes of those who 
planted them, according to their memories 
and experiences of the orchards they had 
known in their home states. These vari- 
eties were often unsuited to our climatic 
and soil conditions, were not of the best 
commercial sorts, and therefore the old 
orchards were not highly regarded for 
their commercial products. These or- 
chards, too, were planted on low lands, 
that are not now considered the best 
adapted to the growing of commercial 
fruits, They were planted where they 
would grow without irrigation, adjacent 
to the streams or rivers, because in such 
locations the trees would get sufficient 
moisture by the process of sub-irrigation 
as the water percolated through the sand 
and gravelly soil of the alluvial bottoms. 
At this time irrigation had not been intro- 
duced, and the only place that trees would 
live was along the streams or where the 
orchard could get the seepage from the 
higher lands. These orchards are mostly 
standing yet, and are vigorous and 
healthy, some of the trees almost as large 
as forest trees. There are pear trees that 
are two feet in diameter and said, at this 
writing, to be 35 years old, and apple 
trees almost as large, but these are not 
generally of commercial varieties. 
However, recently there has been dis- 
covered an orchard and its history that 
settles a question that is so often asked, 
“Will the orchards of this country live 
to be old, and will they continue to bear 
like some of the older orchards of the 
eastern states?’ Sometimes the question 
is put in another form something like 
this, “Will an orchard after it comes into 
bearing be a profitable investment for a 
man in his old age, or will it be a profit. 
able heritage to hand down to his chil. 
dren?” 
In a general way it is known that 
peaches, plums, apricots and almonds are 
short-lived trees, that the Crawford peach 
will probably live and bear profitably for 
20 years, the Elberta 25 years, while pears 
and apples should live and bear, provided 
the soil conditions are right, for from 
75 to 100 years. The statement as to the 
long life of the apple and the pear is 
often doubted, because many orchards 
are known to be short-lived and observa- 
tion leads us to the conclusion that we 
cannot count on profitable returns from 
an orchard more than 50 years old, and 
many are unprofitable before they reach 
that age. This we grant to be true, but 
if orchards are planted in climates 
adapted to fruit growing, in soils where 
there is sufficient plant food, and if they 
are given enough water, and then pro- 
tected from insect pests and fungus dis- 
eases; and if they are cultivated and 
pruned, there is no reason why an orchard 
should not profitably bear for 100 years. 
Orchards have been planted where there 
was not enough water and they famished 
with thirst; we have known them planted 
where the soil was poor and they starved; 
we have known others killed by drouth 
and the hot sunshine of summer; yet 
there are orchards that live and grow and 
bear past the 100 year period. (There 
are orchards in Canada that are more 
than 100 years old, orchards which are 
yet bearing. There are orchards in New 
England, New York and Virginia that are 
more than 100 years old and some of them 
in fairly vigorous health. In 1910 I saw 
‘exhibited for sale in a store in Syracuse, 
New York, apples that came from trees 
a hundred years old. This fruit was not 
“extra fancy,” according to the standards 
set in the Northwest for commercial fruit. 
