APPENDIX. 191 



OREGON PEUNE INDUSTRY. 



By H. H. Mii.i.KK, Eugene. 



The shipment of five hundred cars of dried prunes from Western Oregon 

 during the season of 1898 settled the question as to Oregon's future in the 

 production of prunes. Western Oregon is, beyond all doubt, an excellent 

 prime-growing section, and the industry is sure to increase for many years 

 to come. 



The various productions of the world are rapidly concentrating into 

 localities where the soil and climatic conditions are especially favorable for 

 their most economic production : in fact, the most important problem of hor- 

 ticulture is the selection of soil and climate particularly adapted to the fruit 

 in hand. This fact is becoming so apparent that soil physics and chemistry 

 are necessary sciences in all departments of agriculture, and much better 

 o]iportunities are open for young men in these lines than in law or medicine. 



There is, perhaps, no greater waste of effort in all the industries of Ore- 

 gon than in horticulture. The state is covered from one end to the other 

 with fruit trees of many kinds that will never produce fruit at a profit. I 

 feel perfectly safe in saying that not one tree in ten that has been planted in 

 Oregon during the last twelve years will ever produce fruit at a profit, and 

 am convinced that no other line of production will show nine-tenths of 

 waste. Small and large monuments of ignorance and folly can be found in 

 the scrawny, scabby, scrubby trees in evidence all over the state ; and this 

 same wastefullness still goes on. A good year, with good prices for apples, 

 starts [apple-tree planting on all classes and conditions of soil, and powder 

 and dynamite are used to blow holes in uncongenial soils, where the tree is 

 planted to become a source of disease, and finally wind up a failure. Prune 

 trees by the thousand have been planted where their roots were covered 

 with water for several months in the year, and as they grew sickly the 

 owner would begin a scientific hunt for the difficulty in some insect or fun- 

 gus that would appear active on the tree because the tree was weak on 

 account of improper soil conditions. Again, thousands of trees are found 

 planted upon soil too shallow to maintain a tree ten years old and mature a 

 orop of fruit. In other places trees are planted on soil so deficient in lime 

 and potash as to preclude the possiblity of growing a successful orchard. 



DO NOT PLANT IN SHALLOW SOILS. 



The one great mistake made in the planting of orchards lies in planting 

 on shallow soils. An equally great failure is made by planting on soils 

 where the physical conditions prevent the roots from penetrating to any 

 great depths. A chemical analysis may show an abundance of potash> 

 nitrogen and phosphoric acid in the soil even to a great depth, but some clay 

 strata, water-level, or impervious condition may prevent the roots of the 

 trees from securing the necessary food elements. 



