112 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



He says in part : "The season has been unusually favorable 

 to most kinds of fruits, having no late frosts, a dry time at 

 blossoming, frequent and abundant rains afterwards. Apples 

 in the south of France are never good, but the pear crop 

 promises well — to be exceedingly large, and wijl certainly he 

 of fine flavor. The pears of this region are deservedly noted 

 for their quality. They are, of course, affected by the same 

 plague of woi'ms as the apples, an evil that seems so little re- 

 garded that the fruitdealer will sometimes regard your objec- 

 tion to such occupancy with surprise. The yield of prunes 

 promises well, both in quantity and quality, and I think 

 American growers may safely count on the competition of an 

 unusually large and unusually good prune crop from this 

 consular district ; scarcely anything can now occur to reduce 

 the quantity, and the weather is not likely to impair the 

 quality. However, the almost universal destruction of all 

 sorts of birds in this part of France, in my opinion, will soon 

 render the production of good fruits well nigh impossible." 



Mr. A. M. Thackara, Consul at Havre, says, among other 

 matters: "I have been informed by one of the largest im- 

 porters of American fruits, that apples are now selling here 

 for future delivery at a price one-third of that asked this time 

 last year. He is of the opinion that there will be no apples 

 or pears imported this year, or, at least, very few. There 

 may be a small business done in prunes in the larger sizes.'' 



Summing up all the data obtainable, I find that there is a 

 very large crop of fruit this year throughout the world to 

 compete with, yet I feel that there is a market, and a fair 

 market for absolutely clean, first-class apples and large-sized 

 prunes, carefulh^ packed, to meet the demand of the best 

 trade. It is a pleasure to state that most of Oregon apples 

 this year are not alone of good size, but, through the care of 

 the progressive orchardists, are, comparatively speaking, free 

 from insects and scab. Our Fellenberg prunes are also very 

 large — ideal conditions to meet this demand. 



As a guide of what the demand of apples for export this 

 year will be, I give shipments of the season 1899-1900. The 

 total shipments of apples from all American ports except 

 Pacific Coast, were 1,293,121 barrels distributed as follows : 



Barrefft. 



Liverpool t>44,857 



London 319,869 



Glasgow 211,5.55 



Hamburg 72,150 



Various ports 44,690 



