A bough bent low under the weight of fat, brilliantly crimson apples stretches across this early-twentieth-century tinted postcard, one of thousands of "booster" cards published to promote the agricultural abundance of the American West — this one celebrating Washington State's apple orchards, which by 1910 were already being marketed as the finest in the nation. Published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco, one of the most prolific and collectible early American postcard publishers, this card carries the straightforward pride of an era when a single photograph of a fruit-laden branch was enough to sell a region to prospective settlers and tourists alike. The card was addressed but never stamped or postmarked, making it a crisp survivor of the divided-back era, found in a collection with a Los Angeles address filled in at some point.

• Caption: "1000 — How Red Apples Grow in Washington"
• Card no.: 1000
• Publisher: Edward H. Mitchell, San Francisco
• Series: Mitchell Western agricultural / scenics
• Postmark: None (unused/not mailed)
• Status: Addressed but no stamp; not postally used