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Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER THIRD DISTRICT. 



Grants Pass, Oregon, March 31, 1905. 



To the President and Members of the State Board of Horti- 

 culture : 



I respectfully submit the following report of the horticul- 

 tural outlook for the third district, from October, 1904, to 

 April 10th, 1905: 



The great apple crop of the third district for the fall of 

 1904 was marketed during early fall and winter at most sat- 

 isfactory prices to the growers. The profits from all bearing 

 orchards were so satisfactory to the growers that apple tree 

 planting in the Rogue River Valley in the vicinity of Medford, 

 Central Point, Talent and Ashland, has been stimulated to a 

 wonderful degree. I feel sure that when I say there were 

 three thousand acres planted to new orchard the past wincer 

 in Jackson County that my estimate is a conservative one. 

 Of this acreage planted the past winter, 75 per cent were 

 apples, mostly Yellow Newtown, Spitz and Jonathan, and 25 

 per cent to the pears. 



Climatic conditions during the past winter were very fav- 

 orable for all kinds of orchard work, and a greater amount 

 of work has been done, such as pruning, spraying, plowing, 

 and getting the orchards in prime condition, than during a 

 like period in the history of the industry. 



Trees of all kinds, young and old, have wintered in fine 

 shape, and as spring quickened growth, the vigorous condi- 

 tions of the trees, with their profusion of bloom, warrants 

 me in saying, if climatic conditions continue, the Rogue 

 River and Umpqua valleys will harvest the largest crop of 

 all kinds of fruits in the history of the industry. 



There have been no extremes of temperature during the 

 winter. The lowest at any time the thermometer showed 

 during the winter was 22 degrees above zero, in February, 

 and since that date we have had no frost to injure the most 



