Washington's Fruit Trees

From the Spokane Chronicle January 2, 1899 page 6.

This list of fruit trees by county sure is interesting. I know there used to be a lot of fruit trees in the Spokane Valley, but to see the large number of fruit trees in Whitman and Walla Walla counties really blows my mind. Today so much of Whitman county is planted in wheat or lentils and you have to look pretty hard to find a fruit tree now days. I will say that the homestead act required that so many acres of the homestead had to be planted in fruit trees, so that may be why the number of fruit trees in eastern Washington in 1899.