48 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



PINAL REPORT. 



SECOND DISTRICT. 



Salem, Oregon, December 1, 190Q. 



To the Honorable State Board of Horticulture — 



Gentlemen : In presenting this report for the past two 

 years it may be well to call attention to the district embraced 

 in it. Six counties are included in the second district, nearly 

 the whole territory being in the rich and productive Willam- 

 ette Valley. They are Marion, Polk, Benton, Linn, Lane 

 and Lincoln. In all of these counties fruitgrowing is becom- 

 ing one of the leading branches of agriculture. The approx- 

 imate acreage of the commercial orchards in the second 

 district is given by counties, as follow^s : Marion County, 

 five thousand three hundred and ninety acres ; Linn County, 

 one thousand four hundred acres ; Polk County, one thousand 

 five hundred acres ; Lane County, one thousand nine hundred 

 acres ; Benton County, one thousand four hundred and fifty 

 acres ; Lincoln County, four hundred acres. This does not 

 include the home orchards of an acre or more, nor the num- 

 erous old apple orchards. 



When we say that there are twelve thousand and forty 

 acres in fruit in this district, it conveys to the average reader 

 very little idea of the magnitude of the industry, but when 

 one undertakes to visit these orchards and finds that they are 

 distributed throughout a district containing thirteen thousand 

 six hundred square miles, or an area greater than the com- 

 bined area of the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, 

 he realizes something of the growth of horticulture in the 

 Willamette Valley, and at the same time appreciates the ex- 

 tent of territory embraced in the above-mentioned counties, 

 as well as discovers their unlimited resources. 



More than eight hundred and fifty letters have been received 

 containing many requests for information, and these have 

 been answered as fully as possible. We have visited five 

 hundred and twenty-six orchards, which have ranged in size 

 from four or five acres to two hundred acres. In addition to 

 work done among orchards hundreds of cit}^ lots have been 

 visited and trees on them examined, it being found that the 

 greatest increase in the San Jose scale has been in the cities. 

 The orchards visited have been distributed as to acreage in 



