48 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



overlooking Myrtle Point and the Coquille River ^^'^lIe3^ Mr. 

 Steward's success with the strawberry at this point has been ^-eat, 

 and the ])rofits he has been able to realize from an acre make an 

 object lesson for Coos County that will be a source of great wealth 

 to the people of that locality if they take advantage of the lesson 

 he has taught them. When railroad connections are had with 

 interior markets, the demand for such fine strawberries as are grown 

 by Mr. Steward will be for manv years greater than they can supply. 

 Mr. Steward assures me that off of his three and one-half acres of 

 the ]\Iagoon, Glen Mary and August Luther varieties he has been 

 able to realize, net, $1,600 per acre. To many strawberry growers 

 in less favored sections than Coos County I know $1,600 profit per 

 acre will be taken as a real estate story, told for booming purposes, 

 but it should be known that Mr. Steward's strawberries begin ripe''- 

 ing May 15 and continue to bloom and mature their fruit to Octv.'h'er 

 15, enabling the grower to gather ripe berries every day between 

 the dates mentioned, getting as much as four crops, as compared 

 with less favored sections during the year, and the Drofits he assures 

 me he gets are, I know, facts. Mr. Steward's soil being very rith 

 and congenial to the growth of the strawberry, and the moisture- 

 laden air, drifting over the land daily and condensing at night in 

 heavy dew, keeps the vines strong and vigorous during the bearing 

 season, which with his skill as a grower, are the secrets of his profits 

 and success. Last year Mr. Steward won the prize offered by the 

 Strawberry King of the United States, Mr. R. M. Kellogg of Three 

 Rivers, Michigan. The prize was for the best crate of strawberries 

 grown in the United States. Mr. Steward's prize-winning crate 

 contained twenty-four quart cups and averaged thirteen strawberries 

 to the cup, uniform in size and perfect in color. 



CRANBERRIES. 



Adjoining Coos Bay there are several thousand acres of marsh 

 lands that are adapted to cranberry growing. Mr. C. D. McFarlin 

 of ^N'orth Bend has five and one-half acres in cranberries on North 

 Slough Marsh. The results of his patient toil prove the adapta- 

 bility of the marsh lands of Coos County for cranberry growing. 

 Let him tell it, as he told it to me in his letter of June 14, 1908 : 

 "I began cranberry growing twenty years ago on North Slough, in 

 Coos County. At the beginning I was comparatively a novice, and 

 I made many costly mistakes. * * * j began without any cap- 

 ital. For the last sixteen years my five and a half acres have paid 

 me $1,000, net, annually. Last year T sold from my marsh $2,970 

 worth of cranberries, leaving me, net, $1,800 profit. 



"My experience proves to me that with our climate and soil and 

 other conditions of this section, Cnos County cannot be surpassed 

 for cranberry culture in any part of the TTnited States. 



