22 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



ject, and it should be read by every intending grower. Mr.. 

 J. B. Pilkington also contributes an interesting article on nuts 

 in Europe. The result of his observation while there. 



THE INLAND EMPIRE. 



It has long been recognized that all parts of Oregon touched 

 by the railroad was good fruit country, but the opinion is 

 prevalent that the great Inland Empire, lying between the 

 Cascade Mountains on the west and the Idaho line on the east, 

 the California and Nevada line on the south, and the line of 

 the O. R. & N. Company on the north, is fit only for cattle and 

 sheep range; that it can never be a land of homes and s:i:all 

 farms because it will not produce fruit and vegetables. I 

 have long believed this opinion to be erroneous, but never had 

 opportunity to prove it until this year. Believing that the 

 importance of this wonderful tract of country, the largest in 

 the United States without a railroad, warrants every effort 

 being made to develop it, I have this year traveled pretty 

 thoroughly over Sherman, Crook, Lake, and Klamath counties 

 with a view of determining the possibilities of fruit growing. 

 The result is certainly encouraging; practically everywhere 

 that any intelligent effort has been made to grow fruit the 

 attempt has met with success. Notwithstanding that the ele- 

 vations range all over this country from 3,000 to 4,500 feet 

 above sea level, there are apple trees growing around nearly 

 every farm house where the owner has had interest enough to 

 plant them and provide water for irrigation and a few poplars 

 for a wind break and protection from frost. 



Of course, the country is frosty now, but as it becomes set- 

 tled and the valleys are irrigated and alfalfa fields succeed to- 

 sage brush and grease wood, the climate will change, as it has 

 in every other immigrated country because less frosty and 

 liable to sudden changes, and fruits and vegetables will be pro- 

 duced in abundance. In early days it was said the Yakim.a 

 and Grande Ronde valleys were so frosty that nothing would 

 ever grow there. Look at them now; garden spots of the 

 world. The ability of green vegetation and water from irri- 

 gation ditches to lessen frost in these semi-arid regions is 

 something amazing. The ability of fruits to adapt themselves. 



