Lord and Lady Aberdeen, who had come to BC from Great Britain, were convinced that apples could be grown in the Valley. In the early 1890’s, they bought the Coldstream Ranch near Vernon and the McDougall Ranch (Guisachan) in Kelowna. The Aberdeens were also successful in encouraging middle and upper-class English people to immigrate to BC. People from all over the world came, but many immigrants who started orchards in the 1890’s were greenhorns and soon they realized that fruit tree farming was not an easy business; poor irrigation techniques and the upkeep of flumes, cold winter freezes, unsuitable fruit varieties, low fruit prices, and poor transportation methods plagued progress. Also, many of the newcomers did not realize they had to wait four to six years for their trees to bear fruit! The fruit farmers needed an experimental farm to help them learn more about their complex and changing industry. They faced more and more problems as time went on and needed scientific advice on pruning, pest and disease control, poor weather, bothersome bugs and lack of water. In 1909, the first Summerland apple show was arranged. It was judged by R.M. Winslow of the provincial Department of Agriculture, after whom a siding of the Kettle Valley Railway was named. In 1909, the Honorable Sydney Fisher, Dominion Minister of Agriculture, visited the district and he was urged to have an experimental farm established in the area. The Dominion Experimental Farm was established in Summerland in 1914 to assist the fledgling fruit industry. Next: Two Townsites: Summerland grows >> |
In the early days, early irrigation consisted of damming creeks at higher elevations and then using flumes made of wood to carry water to the orchards. Ditches were dug between the rows of apple trees so the water could flow directly to the tree roots. As the fruit trees grew older, more irrigation was needed. The original systems were inefficient, and expensive concrete and metal flumes were installed. 