Report of Commissioner Third District. 



27 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER THIRD DISTRICT. 



To' the Honorable President (uid Members of the State Board of 

 Horticulture — 

 Gentlemen : I respectfully submit the following report for the 

 biennial year ending September 30, 1904, in regard to the horti- 

 cultural industry of the Third Horticultural 

 District : 



The Third District embraces Coos, Curry, 

 Douglas, Josephine, Jackson, Lake, and 

 Klamath Counties, all southern counties of 

 the State, beginning at the Pacific and run- 

 ning thence east along the northern Califor- 

 nia line to the western boundary of the State 

 of Idaho. 



All of these counties are mountainous, with 

 large and small valleys, with rolling foothills, 

 with various soils, such as alluvial along the rivers and creek bot- 

 toms, red loam and ashy granite on the foothills. 



The alluvial soils along the rivers and creeks are of inexhaustible 

 richness, as the winter rains bring down from the highest levels 

 plant food that is constantly renewing these soils, and as a rule 

 they are sub-irrigated, and any kind of a crop planted in them 

 yields bountifully. These were the first soils settled on and im- 

 proved by the pioneers of Oregon. 



Subsequent settlers took up homesteads on the foothills, and 

 where possible built ditches and conducted the waters of the streams 

 to their farms, and by that means made these foothills very pro- 

 ductive. With water it was found that the foothill lands were as 

 productive as the alluvial soils; that these foothill soils contained 

 rich plant food when the same could be watered. 



Of the seven counties in the Third District, only three at the 

 present time are engaged in horticultural pursuits in a commercial 

 sense, to wit: Douglas, Josephine and Jackson. 



