PLAN No. 764. IRRIGATED FRUIT LAND NEAR SPOKANE, WASHINGTON
He bought his land at Opportunity nine years ago at a cost of $350 an acre. He now has five and a half acres in bearing orchard, with 450 trees eight and nine years old. In 1913 they yielded an average of four packed boxes of apples to the tree, for which he received an average price of $1.31 a box, or a total return of $2,856.
The story of the production of these trees from the beginning is interesting. The first year they yielded nothing; the second year, one box; the third year, 125 boxes; the fourth year, 500 boxes; the fifth year, 1,200 boxes; the sixth year, 1,800 boxes; the seventh year, 2,300 boxes and the eighth year, 2,300 boxes that he sold at $1.20 per box. The lowest price that he received during this time has approximately been $1 per box and he says that the farmer can make money marketing fancy apples at 75 cents a box.
But more can be done on a 10-acre tract than grow apples. For the first five or six years most of the land can be utilized by planting tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupes, potatoes, squash, pumpkins and all sorts of garden truck between the rows of trees. Most of the tracts are farmed this way, in addition to setting aside a part of the land to be permanently used for these crops, berry patches, etc. This inter-planting makes the land pay operating expenses and a profit while the trees are coming into bearing. After the trees attain size, the only other crop that can be raised is clover or some legume that will put nitrogen into the soil.