Report of Chas. A. Park. 25 



of a rieh, sandy soll and will grow nearly everything that 

 can be grown in Oregon. Fine quality of peaches are grown 

 on this soil with few failures from frost. The American 

 varieties of grapes do well. Pears, apples and cherries are 

 successfully grown. All kinds of berries and garden truck 

 do exceedingly well. 



The gray clay loam of the bench land is especially adapted 

 to the growing of a fine quality of apples and pears, but care 

 should be exercised in selecting this land for planting 

 orchards. Much of this land is wet and will have to be tiled 

 before any kind of a tree can be grown successfully. 



The red soil of the hills produces excellent prunes, cherries, 

 apples and pears. It has been demonstrated that a hillside 

 with the right slope to the southwest produces a high colored 

 fruit. 



The climatic conditions of the Willamette Valley are pecu- 

 liarly adapted to the successful growing of fruit. During 

 the Summer months little or no rain falls, which gives the 

 orchardist the most favorable opportunity for applying the 

 sprays to his fruit trees and the best of conditions for har- 

 vesting his crop. The soil of the Valley is such that with 

 proper cultivation the moisture in the ground can be con- 

 served so that a much better quality of fruit is grown than 

 can be produced by means of Irrigation. To irrigate fruit 

 trees in the Willamette Valley would entail a loss in two 

 ways : the expense of Irrigation would be needless, and the 

 results of Irrigation would be a positive injury to the fruit, 

 both in quality and keeping properties. I understand that 

 next year many fruit growers of this State who do not irri- 

 gate their fruit will label each box of fruit "jiot irrigated" 

 so that the buyer may distinguish such fruit from that grown 

 on irrigated lands. 



The Willamette Valley is well served with transportation 

 facilities. It is traversed by the main line of the Southern 

 Pacific Railroad which passes through Woodburn, Salem, 

 Jefferson, Albany, Eugene and Cottage Grove with branch 

 lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad running out of Port- 

 land on the west side of the Willamette River. One branch 

 extends as far south as Corvallis in Benton County and the 

 other extends to Dallas in Polk County. 



The Corvallis and Eastern Railroad passes from east to 

 west through the counties of Marion, Linn, Benton and 

 Lincoln, beginning in the Cascade Mountains and terminating 

 at tide water at Yaquina Bay where ocean going vessels 

 may dock. Besides these railroads there are numerous elec- 

 tric lines being projected throughout the Valley. One electric 



