106 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



shipped to Portland sold for $1.50 to $1.65 per crate, while California 

 Tokays on the same date sold for $1.35 to $1.50 per crate. 



You will ask, ' ' Why do Oregon Tokays sell higher in Portland markets 

 than California Tokays?" The question is best answered by my obser- 

 vations and talk with a retail fruit dealer on Morrison street in Portland 

 last October. Passing down Morrison street, I noticed Tokays of my own 

 growing together with California Tokays, and I stopped to look at them. 

 The Oregon Tokays were labeled Oregon Tokays, 15 cents per pound, and 

 California Tokays, 10 cents per pound. I asked the dealer why there was 

 so much difference in the price of Oregon Tokays and California Tokays. 

 "Why," he said, "you see the Oregon Tokays are highly colored. They 

 look as fresh as if just picked from the vine. They will retain their fresh 

 look for the next ten days and not one of them will decay, while the Cali- 

 fornia Tokays are pale in color and are soft and beginning to decay. I 

 have got to get them off my hands at once or else lose the purchase price. 

 Yes, sir, we did not formerly think so, but now we know Oregon can raise 

 a better Tokay than California." 



I asked Mr. Pearson, senior member of the Pearson-Page Company, of 

 Portland, last fall, how many crates of Tokays they could handle for me 

 during a season of two months in the Portland market and keep prices up. 

 His reply was: "We can handle two carloads a week, and will have no 

 trouble to get you top prices." These are the conditions and demands of 

 our local markets. 



I have taken some pains in this paper to point out to you what the market 

 demands will be for our choice table grapes if we will grow them, and 

 to allay the fears of the timid who may desire to plant the grape yet hesi- 

 tate on account of the specter of over-production, which is ever coming up 

 in their minds to scare them and strangle any personal endeavor they may 

 think of engaging in. Jackson and Josephine Counties have thousands of 

 acres of choice hillside lands that today are as primitive as they were in 

 the days of the early settlement of Oregon by the white race, that are 

 adapted to growing the grape. As -they now are they are non-productive. 

 They are cheap and can be made into homes, by planting the grape, that 

 will care for many families and will be a source of wealth to the owners as 

 well as the State. If this paper induces anyone to take up grape-growing 

 and improve these lands with success, which I know will follow, and if the 

 hints and suggestions I have given are remembered, I shall feel amply 

 repaid for the time spent in its preparation. 



