FRUIT FARMING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. [To THE EDITOR Or THE
"SrECTATOIL."1
Sts,—Fruit farming_inBritish Columbialas been so much to the fore of late that I venture to think a few facts con- cerning it, and more especially the effect of reciprocity upon it, might be of general interest at the present time.
As the population out here may be roughly divided into those who wish to buy and those who wish to sell land, facts relating to fruit growing are apt to be coloured according to their source. Fruit farming out here is indisputably almost an ideal life; lovely scenery and unsurpassed climate, first- class shooting andfishing, a healthy open-air life, and in time a very good return for one's labour and money, are, perhaps, the chief factors which go to make it so.
The worst enemy of fruit growing admits the facts, and, given a go-a-bead agent, with, let us say, a superfluity of enthusiasm and one can' imagine what a dainty dish he can serve up to the unwary: Now reciprocity looms upon the horizon, and on one side we are told that it is to be the making of the fruit industry, while, on the other, .a wail goes up that it is ruination. As a matter of pure fact it will do what almost all legislation of that kind does, hit the small man, and, in this case, hit him uncommonly hard. To the man with capital it will, in the long run, be a help. The advantage, for the moment, is with the Americans, because their orchards are more mature, but that will right itself in time ; but, on the other hand, the grower on this side is gaining a market of some hundred million apple eaters in return for his own home market of, say, seven. But here turn to the small investor, the ten- acre man. What he was told and what he is told are, that he can bridge the gap between the planting of his trees and their coming into bearing, which will be eight years and not five, as is so often stated, by growing vegetables and small fruits between his trees. This is where reciprocity cuts. Scotland might just as well compete with the South of France in growing early strawberries- or vegetables. The man who has already set about to do this, and perhaps by, this time has a two- or three-year old orchard, and is just eking out his existence till his apple-trees bear, 'is in a very bad hole. Reciprocity has had the effect in fact of raising the amount of capital which one must have to take up fruit-farming. To the man who can afford to wait eight years, say a man with £1,500 with which to buy his land, &c., and a small certain income besides, fruit-farming offers a very great deal. It offers him an ideal life, a certain return for his labour and capital, and, leaving reciprocity out of the question, he has the advantage over the States of a slightly better climate, and in certain districts, such as round Nelson and on Vancouver Island, the great advantage of not having to irrigate. Apples grown on naturally watered soil have a better flavour and, what is quite as important, keep much
better, which gives a great pull to the grower, as he can sell his apples when they are getting, scarce. In conclusion, may I add a few words on irrigation?
irrigation has received such an enormous advertisement from India and Egypt that people are reelly beginning to believe that irrigated land must necessarily be the beat. This is, of course, not so. They irrigate land in India because the rest of the available land is already carrying all the popula- tion it can ; here it is very different, and there. still remains n. great deal of naturally watered land to be taken up which is actually better for apple growing than the irrigated tracts,
besides being cheaper on- account of there being no water to pay for. Good wine needs no bush, but-in: these days a little clever advertising, and black is, at any rate, grey.—I am,
Sir, &c., T. DurArrx. Kokanee, B.C., March lath, 1911.
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