46 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



products is by steamer from Coos Bay. Twice a week steamers 

 arrive and depart for Portland, carrying freight and passengers 

 to and from Marshfield and North Bend, vigorous, up-to-date cities 

 on the bay. To get into Coos County by land, one has to go by 

 private conveyance or by stage from Roseburg or Drain, both 

 stations on the Southern Pacific in Douglas County. 



At present the leading industries in Coos County are lumbering, 

 coal mining, dairying and, to a small extent, fruit growing. In 

 value, Coos County dairy products are the second in the State. 



The past year the people of Coos have awakened to her great 

 horticultural possibilities, and from now on her horticultural devel- 

 opment will be rapid. Last year, 1907, Coos shipped to California 

 markets 35,000 hoxes of apples, the greater number of boKes bf-ing 

 the Gravenstein. The soil and climatic conditions are ideal for tue 

 growth of the Gravenstein apple. If Coos County apple grovvei'S 

 make a specialty of this superb fall apple and grow it on com- 

 mercial lines, with railroad facilities to interior markets, she can 

 work up a demand for this apple that will tax her energy to supply. 

 Any fruit district that can grow a commercial fruit of any type 

 better than other districts should make that particular specialty 

 their leading crop. 



The alluvial, sandy-loam soils along the Coos and Coquille Rivers 

 are deep and very productive. Potatoes on these bottom soils yield 

 as high as 500 bushels to the acre. Oats often turn out as high as 

 125 bushels to the acre, and barlev 145 hushels. 



The foothill soils of Coos, unlike the same soils in the interior 

 of the State, are sedimentary in character, deep and very rich in 

 plant food. These foothill lands will grow the apple and pear, and 

 are especially adapted to their growth. The acreage of these hill 

 lands in Coos is large, with a very small per cent used for cultivated 

 crops. As the timber is removed from these hill lands and the 

 underbrush burned, sow to timothy, or any of the tame grasses, and 

 without harrowing the seed germinates, and, owing to the moisture 

 that drifts in from fogs from the Pacific, perpetual pasture is had, 

 as at no part of the winter season does frost occur, for the warm 

 Japan current flowing up the coast from the tropics gives off 

 heat to prevent it. 



Berries of all kinds thrive and bear large crops on any of tlu- 

 soils in the county. Cultivated blackberrieSv raspberries, logan- 

 berries and strawberries bear heavier crops than in any other secrion 

 I have ever seen. While in the county last June T found the wild 

 strawberry growing everywhere through the hills. I found but few 

 cultivated strawberries in the county, excepting at Myrtle Point, at 

 the head of tidewater on the Coquille River. At this point I found 

 Mr. H. B. Steward, postmaster, cultivating three and one-half acres 

 in strawherries. Mr. Steward is an expert strawlierry grower. His 

 strawberry acreage is located on a high hill, with red loam soil. 



