SOME HISTORY
In May, 1904, the Kelowna Land and Orchard Company purchased 6700 acres southeast of Kelowna for subdivision.  The company reserved 577 acres for its own agricultural operation.  The first fruit trees were planted in 1905 and by 1912 the orchard covered 200 acres.

 
June 13, 1912                                    May 7, 1914

One of the striking things was the large number of varieties grown.  On today's orchard it is unusual to grow more than three or four varieties of a fruit.  But the KLO orchard included ten apple varieties (Spitzenberg, Northern Spy, King David, Wealthy, Yellow Newton, McIntosh Red, Cox's Orange, Johnathan, Winesap and Delicious); three crab apples (Transcendent, Florence and Hyslop); five pears (Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Comice, Anjou, and Boussock); seven cherries (Windsor, Lambert, Bing, Royal Anne, Black Tartarian, Olivette and English Morello): and ten plums and prunes (Peach-plum, Burbank, Tragedy, Abundance, Bradshaw, Engelbert, Black Diamond, Italian Prune, Pond's Seedling and Grand Duke).  That is thirty-five varieties in all.  Why so many?

There are several reasons why more sorts of fruit were grown in 1912 than today.  Commercial fruit growing in the Okanagan began only in the 1890's, and growers still were not sure what would perform best.  It was, therefore, prudent to plant a wider range, rather than concentrating on a few varieties which might prove unsuitable.  Today, with many more years' experience, growers can limit plantings to varieties proven productive, profitable and suitable to the climate.

Changes in market demands and storage techniques also shrank the range of varieties grown.  In 1912 much of the crop was intended not for eating straight, but for cooking and home preserving.  This explains the plantings of crab apples and sour cherries (Olivette and English Morello), neither of which are eaten uncooked.  But today almost all grown fruit is of the "dessert" class, and relatively little home preserving is done.  Commercial processing is largely a byproduct operation, aimed at salvaging unsellable cull or low quality fruit of the dessert varieties; cooking varieties are no longer grown.

Changes in storage have also reduced the number of varieties needed.  In 1912, with only "common" storage (root cellars and warehouses), it was important to grow varieties which ripened at different times.  Soft fruits and even many apples keep only a few days naturally; therefore a range was necessary not only to prevent a sudden glut but also so the consumer had fruit available for a longer period.  Apples, for example, included "summer" varieties such as Yellow Transparent, ripe in early August; "early fall' apples such as Wealthy, ripe at the end of August; main crop "fall" varieties such as McIntosh and Cox's Orange; and "winter" apples such as Spitzenberg and Winesap, which stored better and could be held for sale later in the winter.  The introduction of cold storage in the 1950s allowed the most popular varieties such as McIntosh and Delicious to be stored and sold year-round, eliminating the need for most winter varieties.

The technology of 1912 also determined orchard layout.  With open-furrow irrigation, only level or near-level land was really suitable for orchards.  Not until cheap aluminum pipe and sprinklers were introduced after World War II were slopes like the "39 Acres Arable Land" (on the map's right side) planted.

Water for furrow irrigation was distributed through the orchard by gravity-fed ditch and flume.  The "Drop Flume" (on the map's lower right) from the Upper Bench fed the system.  In rotation the different orchard blocks were watered by opening gates on the flumes and running water along furrows ploughed between the rows of trees.  Once a block was thoroughly soaked, the irrigated ground was tilled to create a "dust mulch" to slow evaporation.

March 14, 1912                                 Feb 12, 1914

An orchard constantly evolves.  By 1912 there had already been considerable revision, even though the orchard was only seven years old.  Comparison with an earlier map shows that a planting of peaches in the northeast corner had been taken out (probably because Kelowna is marginal for successful peach culture) and replaced with pears, more suited to the climate and fond of heavier soil.  Also, since the trees would take years to grow into their wide spacing (30 feet apart for sweet cherries, plums and pears), a great many "filler" trees had been planted between the permanent trees.  These fillers were early fruiting varieties; the plan was to harvest a few crops and then pull them out once the permanent trees reached full size.