20 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



The law contemplates that the commissioner at large shall visit 

 each fruit-growing section of the State each year. With the funds 

 at our disposal this is manifestly impossible, and the best 1 have been 

 able to do is to visit the main districts each year and one or two 

 new localities each season. In pursuance of this plan, accompanied 

 by Commissioner Carson of the Third District, I visited the Lower 

 Umpqua Valley and Coos Bay regions in June. Although knowing 

 something of the progress being made in that district from the 

 reports received and from the fruits exhihited from time to time, I 

 was greatly surprised at the actual results achieved and at the possi- 

 bilities for the future. The heavily timbered soils, like many other 

 portions of Oregon, are difficult and expensive to clear, but when 

 once subdued they are of unsurpassed fertility, and will produce 

 nearly all the fruits of the temperate zone to perfection. The small 

 fruits, particularly raspberries and blackberries, yield astonishing 

 quantities of fruit of the most superb quality. The Gravenstein 

 apples of this region have already become famous for their size, flavor 

 and shipping qualities. Many other varieties will do equally well. 

 Being near the sea coast, the bright red apples will perhaps not color 

 so highly as elsewhere, and fungous diseases will be diflRcult to 

 control, but these troubles are offset by the pleasant fact that the 

 codling moth is unknown, and the heavy expense of spraying for it 

 can be avoided. 



The prune industry is today on a sound basis in Oregon, and is 

 capable of large expansion. Given proper soil and site, and intelligent 

 care, the prune is certain to pay a reasonable profit and the prune 

 orchard to be a profitable investment. 



The man who would plant an orchard in Oregon today has many 

 advantages over the one who hegan twenty or more years ago, or even 

 ten years ago. The mistakes which have been made can be seen and 

 avoided; he knows now what varieties to plant; how far apart to set 

 the trees; how to select the soil ; how to prune and cultivate; in short, 

 the trail has been thoroughly blazed. The temptation to plant more 

 orchards is hard to resist. 



In spite of all the preachments for years about cover crops for or- 

 chards, it is astonishing to find how few orchardists use them. It is 

 true that twice as many can be seen this fall as in any previous year, 

 still the numher is astonishingly small. Intense cultivation all sum- 

 mer for an orchard without a following winter crop of vetches is 

 even harder on the soil than the old bare summer fallow for wheat, 

 and it is time we realized the absolute necessity of the winter cover 

 crop for the orchard. 



Few of us realize how much income may be obtained from a very 

 few acres, and for the encouragement of those who have small tracts 

 of land I wish to give the figures of actual production of fruit on the 

 small suburban tract of Mr. Albert Johnson at Ashland, Oregon. 

 These figures are taken from the books of the Ashland Fruit Growers' 



