APPENDIX. 1G7 



HORTICULTURE IN OREGON, AND FOREIGN 



FRUIT MARKETS. 



Uoad bt'fore the Fiiniiers' (.'ongross ;it Salciii, by IIkxkv K. Doscii. 



A pai)tn- on the topic assigrned to me, "Horticulture in Oregon, and Foi-- 

 eiy^n Fruit Markets,'' cannot possibly be written and compiled in a day or a 

 week, and inasmuch as this is a composite cong'ress of farmers, fruitgrowers, 

 and commercial men, I hope you will pardon me if I present, in pai't at least, 

 a paper I read at C'orvallis, which in itself is a composite paper, along- hor- 

 ticultural and comniercial lines, being the resume of a correspondence cov- 

 ering over five hundred letters and six months' time. 



HORTICULTURE IX OREGON. 



Oregon has earned the sobriqud ui the l^aud of Red Apples from the 

 earliest days of its settlement, to which we can conscientiously add the Fel- 

 lenberg, now known to the trade as the "Oregon Prune. " These fruits have 

 since spread from our beautiful and fertile Willamette Valley, where both, 

 on properly selected soils, will grow to perfection, to the uttermost bound- 

 aries of our state. The arid lands of the vast inland empire located along 

 the flat areas of the Snake River, which were heretofore considered only fit 

 to grow sagebrush and greasewood, the home of the jackrabbit and toad, 

 have proved wonderfully fertile under irrigation, and under the management 

 of progressive, up-to-date farmers and fruitgrowers ; and in the near future 

 I predict these lands will be the home of winter pears and apples. 



The beautiful Grande Ronde and other valleys, scattered throughout the 

 higher plateau region and Blue Mountains, as well as Hood River along the 

 Columbia River, and which do not depend upon irrigation, are most fertile 

 spots for the fruitgrower — perhaps nowhere do apples, pears, cherries, and 

 prunes grow to greater perfection as to size, flavor and color. And again, 

 there is Southern Oregon with its Rogue River, Umpqua, and other smaller 

 valleys, olf ei'ing peculiar advantage to horticulture, which at no distant day 

 will be a veritable paradise for the fruitgrower. The climate there is un- 

 surpassed anywhere in this fair land of ours, and there flourish the peach, 

 apple, prune, French walnut, almond, and grape. 



Horticulture is no longer an experiment in Oregon. The incessant 

 drudgery, the numerous and keen disappointments which are peculiar to all 

 new enterprises, and from which Oregon did not escape, are things of the 

 past. We have reached the era of scientific manag"ement of the orchard. 

 Horticulture, as we understand it, is no longer the problem it was, thanks 

 to the scientific investigations of the professors of the experiment Stations 

 throughout the woi-ld, and to practical fruitgrowers. We know the soils 

 best adapted for vainous fruits, the best varieties to plant for family use or 

 commercial purposes, and know how to evaporate them. We also know 



