and eighty feet, and Mount Constitution, on Orcas, which is two thousand five hundred feet in height. San Juan, since the days when the American collector had the unpleasant episode with the swineherd, has enjoyed a profitable trade in lime, of which thirty-eight thousand barrels are annually exported. There are forty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety-six acres of improved land in the group; but stock-raising rather than farming is the business of the inhabitants.
Orcas Island is the most modernized of the group, having, as well as San Juan, several lime companies, all doing a good business; a lumber company, two brick-yards, and other manufactories. A few years ago hotels and summer boarding-houses were erected on this island, with the purpose of attracting visitors and building up towns. But since the railroad era dawned upon the Sound, the Orcas Island people have taken to fruit-growing, which promises to be a great business on these isles. They have organized a Fruit-Growers' Association; and, since I know by actual test that the fruit of all the northwest part of Washington is superior in flavor, I hereby desire to advertise the fact for the benefit of all whom it may concern. The head-quarters of the Orcas Fruit-Growers' Association is at East Sound. Under the auspices of this society fruits will be packed and shipped in the most careful manner, and guaranteed to purchasers. The secretary also will undertake to find tracts of from ten to twenty acres, suitable for fruit-raising, for those who desire to enter into this aesthetic branch of agricultural life.
Summer apples raised here bring, at the wharf, eighty-five cents to one dollar per box holding about half a bushel. Winter apples bring from one dollar and twenty-five cents to one dollar and seventy-five cents, and keeping apples for spring market still higher. Pears bring from one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars per box. Apricots bring eight and a half cents per pound, prunes for the drying-house three and a half cents per pound. Strawberries and blackberries sell for ten cents a pound. The most luscious peaches are grown among the mountains of the islands. Cherries produce wonderful crops, and so with melons and vegetables. Why should not one love to publish this Arcadian region to the world? Poets not yet born will sing of
