SMALL FRUITS IN WESTERN OREGON 



By H. M. WiLLiAMSON, Secretary of the State Board of Horticulture. 



In this article Western Oregon will be considered as including that 

 part of the State which lies west of the Cascade Mountains, excepting 

 that portion thereof drained by the Rogue River. 



The natural conditions of Western Oregon are peculiarly favorable 

 for the production of small fruits. The temperature rarely falls to zero 

 in winter, and the summers are cool and free from drying winds; and 

 large yields, produced through a prolonged ripening season, are the rule. 



THE STRAWBERRY. 



In Western Oregon, as elsewhere, the strawberrv is the leader among 

 small fruits. Few other sections can be found where the strawberry 

 yields such large crops of fruit of the best quality as are grown here. 

 By reason of the ample supply of choice berries at a moderate price 

 throughout a long season the consumption of strawberries per person 

 is unusually large in Portland and the other eitles of the State. The 

 quantities taken by canneries is steadily increasing, and this increase 

 will be more rapid when the completion of the Panama canal gives 

 freight rates sufficiently low to encourage the shipping of canned straw- 

 berries to eastern markets. By reason of favorable climatic conditions 

 strawberries are grown at lower cost in Western Oregon than in any 

 portion of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The United 

 States census of 1900 showed that Oregon then raised more straw- 

 berries than Iowa and 50 per cent more than Minnesota, although Iowa 

 then had more than five times as many inhabitants as Oregon, and 

 Minnesota about four times as many. 



The pioneer settlers of Oregon found strawberries growing wild 

 here in great profusion and for many vears the wild strawberries 

 sufficed to meet the wants of the farmers and of the residents of the 

 smaller eitles and villages of the country. The native strawberries 

 of Oregon begin to ripen earlier than any cultivated variety, but little 

 effort has been made to select or propagate from this stock varieties 

 worthy of cultivation. 



In 1858 Seth Lewelling brought from the east a number of varieties 

 of cultivated strawberries but found the demand at that time for straw- 

 berries so small that it did not pav to raise them. A few years later 

 the demand for strawberries in Portland began to grow rapidly. 



Partly by chance and partly as a result of systematic effort a number 

 of new varieties of strawberries have originated in Oregon in the past 

 30 vears which have proved especially well adapted to production in 

 this State. It is probable that at the present time more than 90 per 

 Cent of the strawberries grov/n in the State are of varieties which 

 originated in Western Oregon. The leaders among the varieties which 

 originated here are the Clark's Seedling (also called the Hood River 

 and Clark's Early) , Magoon, Oregon, and Gold Dollar. The oldest of 

 these varieties is the Clark's Seedling. It originated as a result of 

 experimental planting of strawberrv seeds bv Mr. Fred Clark, a gardener 

 and fruit grower who lived in the Mount Tabor district near Portland. 

 The date of its origin has not been learned but plants of this variety 

 were set at Hood River in 1883 by Mr. T. R. Coon. The variety proved 

 peculiarly well adapted to the Hood River Valley and for many years 



