* BOARD OF HORTICTJLTURE 105 



must keep abreast of the times ; he must study and keep posted on the latest 

 improved appliances. 



Thouirh fruit has been grown in Oregon for sixty-otld years, it is only recently 

 that horticulture was reduced to a scientific basis. The backwardness, wliich 

 was the ruling eondition until a sliort time ago, was due to a lack of knowledge 

 about planting and fruitgrowing. Very few growers were thorouglily equipped 

 for tlie business in wliieli they have invested their capital, and were it not for 

 the fact that "crops never fail in Oregon," many more disappointments would 

 have been recorded. The State toolc horticulture in band and now supplies an 

 al)undance of practical Information to all who care to ask for it. This Informa- 

 tion is distributed through the members of the State Board of Horticulture, the 

 Office of the Board and the faculty of the Agricultural College. Tliere is now no 

 reason for failure because of the absence of useful Information about soils, stock 

 selection, tree planting, cultivation, pruning, spraying and the science of pollena- 

 tion. Progressive horticulture does wonders. It makes the old trees bear fruit 

 again and gives the young ones a good start from the time they are set out. I 

 have said that fruitgrowing is not only healthful but more profitable than any 

 other agricultural pursuit, and while it is conceded that all various frults can be 

 grown to perfection in Oregon, the highest success can only be obtained by the 

 intelligent painstaking orchardist. Brains are as essential on the farm and in 

 the orchard as in the office or counting room. When Meissonier, the great French 

 artist, was asked how he succeeded in painting such beautiful pictures, he re- 

 plied, "I mix my colors with brains." Tlie way lies through intelligent investi- 

 gation of markets and methods, the application of brains to the agricultural and 

 horticultural Problems. We must study to please the tastes and notions of the 

 world's consumers and must avail ourselves of the researches of the biologist, 

 the bacteriologist, the entomologist and the investigations of the expert in crops 

 and mai-ket conditions. Uninformed and unenlightened labor is at a great disad- 

 \antage these days of sharp trading and scientific adaptation of means to the end. 



The State of Oregon offers relief. When I was honored by the Chamber of 

 Commerce to represent Oregon's interests at the Nicaragua Canal Convention held 

 at New Orleans in November, 1892, I closed my address, and which bears re- 

 peating, as follows : 



You will find that the beautiful lines from William Cullen Bryant's poem, 

 "Where rolls the Oregon, 

 And hears no sound save his own dashings," 



are not, and have not been for a long time, applicable to this noble stream ; for 

 it hears the splashings and puffings of many steamboats traversing its bosom ; 

 it hears the whistles of the locomotives pulling transcontinental freight and 

 passenger trains along its shores ; it hears the pulsations of the mighty ocean 

 steamers that carry the commodities of the Orient and Occident ; it hears the 

 cheerful songs and "Ahoy, boys. ahoy" of the sailors from vessels under the flags 

 of many nations that carry our wheat, barley, oats, fruit, flour, lumlier, fisli and 

 other products to the furthermost corners of the earth ; it hears the lowing of 

 cattle and bleating of thousands of sheep that graze its borders ; it hears the 

 buzz and whir of the sawmills that convert our forest giants of fir, spruce, 

 cedar, oak, ash and pine into commercial products, even supplying the masts and 

 spars and decking of the very ships tliat carry them to the markets of the world ; 

 it hears the hum of the steam roller mills tliat transform our fine wheat into 

 flour to make tlie bread for many nations ; it hears the click of the looms in the 

 woolen mills ; it hears the rumble of the electric light and power plants ; it hears 

 the songs of the birds that follow civilization into the wilderness ; it hears the 

 laughter of the children from thousands of happy homes skirting its banks, once 

 the trail and the "illihi" of the Indian ; it hears the bustle of life and activity of 

 the villages and eitles nestling along its shores ; it now hears the hum of the 

 aeroplanes that carry our mails, newspapers, freight and passengers from one 



