REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 29 



and claims to raise one per cent, of all the apples grown in 

 the United States. The value of the orchards of this valley 

 run up to millions of dollars, and mansions costing thousands 

 of dollars are found on these apple farms. The value of 

 orchard lands exceeds those devoted to any other industry in 

 the state, yet Los Angeles buyers came, in October, past the 

 Pajaro Valley, one thousand two hundred miles north, to 

 Oregon to buy their fancy fruit. 



Lands in Nova Scotia, that were purchased six years ago, 

 then in trees and stumps, for $10 per acre, cleared and 

 planted to orchards, are valued at $500 per acre. 



There is no other way apparent to me whereby we can 

 enhance the value of the fruitlands of our state so greatly as 

 to plant them in orchards. 



There are only one thousand four hundred to one thousand 

 five hundred acres in fruit in Hood River Valley. No large 

 commercial orchards, yet her growers will realize $125,000 

 for the fruit crop of the year 1900. This industry is rapidly 

 expanding, and the time may not be remote when the orchards 

 and berry plantations of this little mountain valley may have 

 increased tenfold, with a revenue in a favorable season 

 amounting to $1,000,000. 



From fifteen acres of Newtown Pippins, in Jackson County, 

 I understand were gathered seven thousand boxes of apples, 

 that no country could excel, and sold at Medford for $7000 

 for foreign export. 



The timbered slopes of our noble Willamette Valley, up to 

 an elevation of two thousand feet, are far more inviting to 

 the orchardist than the flat lands below. And orchards will 

 creep up these slopes and up the slopes of the Blue Mountains. 

 And the grape and the peach will occupy every available 

 position bordering on the Columbia in Oregon . Great orchards 

 are being planted below the irrigating ditches in Malheur, and 

 even the high plateau of Southeastern Oregon produces to 

 perfection the hardier fruits. 



Nature invites the horticulturist to Oregon. Soil, climate, 

 and commanding position as to the markets of the world 

 invite him. And the pursuit itself, the most beautiful of all 

 related to the soil — every stage of growth, of bud, flower, 

 and fruit, a miracle — invites him. 

 Respectfully submitted, 



E. L. SMITH, 



President. 



Hood River, Oregon, December 1, 1900. 



