04 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
PUGET SOUND'S FUTURE. 
Possibilities for Nurseries and Orchards—Many Persons From 
the East Settling There—Home of the Big Cherry— 
Fine Prospects for Small Fruit Culture. 
JOHN M. STEWART, CHRISTOPHER, WASH. 
The past season’s business has been a good one, and the 
outlook is very encouraging for the sale of nursery stock. A 
great many people are coming in from the east and settling 
on small tracts of land in the Puget Sound district with the 
intention of making permanent homes for themselves; they 
find it a great contrast to the rigorous climate they have 
been enxperiencing in the east. This year we have had 
but very little winter weather to speak of, perhaps a few 
slight falls of snow, which did not get a chance to lie long 
enough on the ground to give one the pleasure of a sleigh 
ride, neither have we had any freezing weather, not over 
ten degrees below freezing point at the 
coldest, and in fact we 
get enough frost to freeze ice 
skating a pastime. 
There are not so many large and ex¬ 
tensive orchards on the sound as there 
are in the eastern part of the state, but 
fruit does well here, and new comers must 
have a home orchard set out the first thing. 
This has been a wonderful spring, it 
has just kept cool enough to keep back 
the buds from leafing out, but now at 
this writing it looks as though summer 
had burst in upon us all of a sudden. 
The prospect for an abundant crop of 
fruit was never brighter, although we 
never have an entire failure. On the 
islands of Puget Sound, Vashon, Orcas and 
San Juan, well colored red winter apples 
can lie raised to perfection, and I have 
seen just as fine specimens as any from 
parts of Eastern Washington. It is nec¬ 
essary in order to get the best results to trim the trees and 
keep them open to the sunlight as much as possible. 
The cherry does especially well here; it is the home of the 
cherry. Such cherries! Large, fine and luscious, they are 
an eye-opener to any who have never seen them before. 
There is no part of the world, I venture to say, where they 
can be excelled. They bear every year abundantly and 
bring good prices. The Royal Ann and Napoleon Bigarreau 
are no doubt the finest. There are a number of other good 
kinds, such as the Bing and . Lambert, these are dark sorts, 
all very large and sweet. Sour varieties (which are used 
for canning) are being planted extensively for that purpose, 
such as the Early Richmond and Montmorency. To give 
some people an idea of the extent of the planting of cherry 
trees here, I sold to one party for his own private planting 
1,000 Bing cherry trees, and to another 175 Montmorency 
Plum and prune trees do very well, but are not grown 
to any extent here. The quince does very well here also. 
The peach cannot be depended on as a sure bearer; there 
is a variety however, called the Fidalgo (named after an 
island on Puget Sound) which is hardy and a sure bearer 
every year. 
Grapes can also be raised; such sorts as Moore’s Eearly 
and Niagara are the best on account of their earliness in 
ripening. 
All kinds of small fruits and berries do exceedingly well 
here, especially the raspberry and blackberry. Puyallup 
and Sumner are famous for their extensive shipments of 
these berries which are sent by refrigerator service as far 
east as St. Paul and bring good returns. The varieties planted 
are the Cuthbert and Red Antwerp raspberry and the Mead 
or Snyder blackberry, still there is money to be made in plant¬ 
ing the Evergreen blackberry which yields enormously; 
it is, as the name signifies, evergreen, and is a rampant 
grower and very hardy. 
Strawberries do especially well on the slopes of Lake 
Washington near Seattle and on Vashon Island, and in 
fact on any of the upland around the 
Puget Sound basin. The Clark Seedling 
or Hood River is in particular favor, 
because of its good shipping qualities. 
The Magoon is also planted extensively 
and is a good cropper, it is well adapted 
to the valley lands where the Clark’s 
will not do well. 
Puget Sound is but in its infancy, and 
its outlook is beyond our conception in 
its rapid growth and development. It 
will lead in the not far distant future. 
-- 
S. A. MILLER. 
Among the younger nurserymen of the 
Pacific coast who are rapidly pushing 
their way to the front is S. A. Miller 
of A. Miller & Sons, Milton, Oregon. 
Born in California July 18th, 1866, he 
moved with his parents to Umatilla ' 
County, Oregon, in 1872, when the country 
was very thinly settled, except by the 
native red man. Here on the banks of the Walla Walla 
river they homesteaded 160 acres of government land within 
one mile of where since has been built the thriving little city 
of Milton. His father, A. Miller, started the Milton nurseries 
in 1876 and is now a retired member of the firm. 
Although but ten years of age when his father established 
the nursery, he was at once initiated into the mysteries of the 
craft and has ever since worked at the business in all its 
branches from the planting of the seedling, grafting, budding, 
training the tree and selling the finished product to the orch- 
ardist, and in all these various branches of the nursery busi¬ 
ness has been entirely successful. In 1896 Mr. Miller assumed 
the general management of the modest business built up by 
his father, and under his careful and enterprising manage¬ 
ment the Milton nurseries has grown to be one of the largest 
in the Pacific Northwest. 
Mr. Miller was instrumental in organizing the Pacific 
Coast Nurserymen’s Association, and at the last meeting 
held in Portland, Oregon, June, 1903, was elected its president. 
In addition to the close attention necessary to a large 
seldom or ever 
to make 
S. A. Miller, Milton, Ore. 
President Pacific Coast Nursery Ass’n. 
