18 



Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER FIRST DISTRICT. 



I'o the President and Members of the State Board of Hortieulture. 

 I herewith submit my biennial report for the term ending: Sep- 

 tember 30, 1904. The First Horticultural District comprises the 



counties of INIultnomah, Clackamas, Wash- 

 ington, Yamhill, Columbia, Clatsop, and Til- 

 lamook. The five eonnties first named are 

 splendidly adapted to all kinds of fruit com- 

 monly gTown in the temperate zone, and the 

 other two, though not strictly first-class 

 fruit-growing localities, are still capable of 

 great development in this line, particularly 

 iu the matter of growing small fi'uits, ber- 

 ries, etc. 



All of these counties are more or less monn- 

 tainons, comprising the northern part of the Willauiette Valley, 

 with the numerous small valleys tributary thereto, and a long; 

 stretch of country along the coast. The soil of the valleys is allu- 

 vial of most all grades that can be classed under that general title, 

 in some places a little gravelly, in others sandy or loamy, in still 

 others a deep black soil locally known as "beaverdam." The foot- 

 hills, and even the highest mountains, save in the few places where 

 rock croi)s (Uit, are a fertile clay loaui. The native trees comprise 

 an innnense number of varieties, but by far the most common and 

 most valuable is the Douglas spruce, connnonly called the Doug- 

 las fir. Many of the valleys have valuable tracts of ash, and the 

 southern part of Clackamas and the larger part of Yamhill coun- 

 ties contain considerabh^ (luantities of oak timber. 



At the present time the principal commercial orchards are in 

 Yamhillj Washington, Multnomah, western Clackamas, and north- 

 ern Columbia counties, the principal berry and small-fruit farms 

 in ^Multnomah and the eastern parts of Washington and Yamhill 

 counties, and grapes in western Washington, and in ^Multnomah, 

 near Portland. However, there is nothing in climatic or soil con- 



