The Fruit Boom on Orcas Island

Seeing the article in last week's issue of the Whatcom or the Northwestern Fair in regard to the display and the fruit products of Orcas Island, we thought you would like to know more of our island, almost cut in two by the beautiful bays of East and West Sound, and Mount Constitution on one side and Turtleback on the other. Mount Constitution is 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. There are four lakes on this mountain, one nearly a mile long, almost on the summit. The valleys on this mountain are all planted out and are yielding fine quality fruit of all kinds. We have watched the growth of this island, being a resident six years, and nothing pleases us any better than to hear the products praised by people who know what they say. We have seen the time when a shipment of 100 boxes of apples or a ton or two of green prunes was thought remarkable, but now, although still a new district, we are shipping green and evaporated fruit by the carload. There are nine evaporators, and the product from these is nearly 100 tons of dried fruit. We can safely say that in five years the increase will be ten times the amount. The careful horticulturist of the island is the one that is and will make the money, and they are the ones that will stay by it. Others will gradually drop out, and it will be a good thing, because every man is not adapted to the growing of fruit. It is a study, and it requires experience and hard work to make a practical fruit man. Nature has given us a wonderful start in the soil, but she cannot do all. In Pleasant and Crow valleys there is considerable grain raised, but the main crop of the island will be fruit, and it will be clean and perfect.