REPORTS OF W. K. NEWELL. 



President of Board and Commissioner at Large. 



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APRIL MEETING, 1909. 



Gaston, Oregon, April 15, 1909. 

 To the Honorable State Board of Horticulture: 



I trust that the reports that you will submit today contain 

 a record of activity in horticultural field work during the past 

 season and are füll of encouragement for the Coming one. 



At this early date it is almost impossible to make any close 

 estimate as to the Coming crop ; at best only the conditions to 

 date can be recorded. As far as my personal Observation over 

 the greater part of Western and Northern Oregon is con- 

 cerned, I find things quite encouraging. 



It is a great satisfaction to ride along and see almost every 

 orchard or home garden lot of trees all nicely sprayed and the 

 neglected, unsprayed tree the exception, instead of as formerly 

 vice versa. Our coimty inspectors are rapidly bringing the 

 delinquents into line and soon it will be the universal rule to 

 give every tree at least one good pruning and spraying annu- 

 ally. Once that is accomplished and the good results seen, 

 further necessary care will be freely given. 



Eastern Oregon and the northern part of the Willamette 

 Valley experienced this year the coldest winter recorded in 

 many years, and as a result there has probably been some 

 damage done to the more tender f ruits, such as peaches and 

 loganberries. It is impossible to teil how extensive the injury 

 has been as yet, but there is certainly no reason to fear any 

 famine in these lines. ' '' ''^ ''' 



This matter of preparing reports of crop prospects is a 

 difhcult one but one of great importance, and I trüst you will 

 use all care to be just as accurate as possible; erring, if at 

 all, always on the side of conservatism. A light crop rarely 

 ever proves so nearly a failure as is at first feared, nor does 

 a bumper crop ever turn out quite so big äs anticipated. 



Reports of either extreme condition may do a great deal 

 of härm to the pärties most directly concerned. I believe that 

 reports of very large yields of apples last year cost the growers 

 a good deal of money; parties that were well informed knew 

 that the average crop was light, yet persistent boom reports 

 from certain sections gave the impression that the crop was 

 phenomenally large..'" ' / '^ ' '";",'' ' ''.' ''/ ;, 



