32 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



I think our very short crop this year was owing more to 

 the extreme drouth than any other cause. Think of only 

 800,000 pounds of prunes, only 10 per cent of a normal crop. 



Grants Pass, Oregon, April 9, 1906. 



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

 culture : 



I respectfully submit the following as my semi-annual re- 

 port for the third district: 



The past winter, 1905-06, has been a very active season for 

 the fruit growers of the third district. With the planting out 

 of new orchards, pruning, and spraying the old orchards, the 

 fruit men of the Rogue River Valley have had but little tin:e 

 to discuss economics, or the possible working of the outcome 

 of the primaries. With respect they shake the glad hand of 

 the candidate, excuse themselves, and hasten to grasp the 

 spray rod. 



During the winter of 1905-06, there has been 3,000 acres 

 planted to apples and pears in the vicinity of Medford, Cen- 

 tral Point, and Ashland. About 70 per cent of this acreage? 

 was planted near Medford. Of apples the leading varieties 

 planted were Ne\\i:own, Spitzenbergs, and Jonathan, and the 

 leading pears planted were the Comice, Bunear Bosk, Bart- 

 lett and Winter Nellis. There is at this date 12,500 acres of 

 apples and pears planted in orchard in Jackson County — the 

 greater per cent being in the vicinity of Medford — the center 

 of the apple and pear industry of the Rogue River Valley. 



It may be asked, what stimulates the planting of so many 

 large orchards for commercial purposes in Rogue River Val- 

 ley? This is a pertinent question, and my answer is, the 

 climate and soil of the Rogue River Valley is congenial to the 

 growth of the apple and pear. 



It has been found that there is no section of the United 

 States that apples and pears are grown that the shippi ^r 

 qualities of the fruit compare with those grown in the Ro:.(:.e 

 Valley. Apples packed at Medford and shipped to European 

 markets always arrive in condition. Pears to New York, 



