222 Appendix. 



and has a general tendency to produce the good effects spoken of above. In 

 another very essential respect our wines resemble the fine Rhine wines, that 

 they improve with age ; the older they get the better they are and finer the 

 bouquet. 



The beautiful and fertile little valleys along our coast line are all more 

 or less adapted to fruitgrowing, especially the apple. One progressive experi- 

 menter has even now fruiting acres of the tender olive. A little enterprise 

 and energy will accomplish wonders in horticulture and viticulture in Oregon. 



However, there is one enterprise which does not have the attention it de- 

 serves, and that is the growing of nut-bearing trees. I have been advocating- 

 the planting of nut-bearing trees, more particularly the English walnut, or 

 more correctly speaking, the French walnut, as the other is simply a commer- 

 cial term, for many years. While a number of small plantings have been made, 

 there is only one on a commercial scale, consisting of forty acres of walnuts 

 and chestnuts, hence there is practically an unoccupied field, which promises 

 as good returns as any other kind of fruit by way of intensive and diversified 

 farming. This is now well recognized and understood in the East, since the 

 wild nut-bearing trees, which grew so plentifully, have been cut down waste- 

 fully and used for posts, fences, and firewood. The scarcity has become so 

 marked that attention has been called to it by the trade, and many new plant- 

 ings are now being made. When I first planted my own, in order to thor- 

 oughly satisfy myself as to the adaptability of our soils and various climatic 

 conditions, I gave away over two hundred yearling trees of my own growing. 

 I sent tliem to friends in various parts of this State — to Eastern Oregon, 

 Southern Oregon, the coast counties, the Willamette Valley, and even to the 

 Sound counties of Washington — and the reports received have been most grati- 

 fying. Some of the trees have in eight years' time grown to twenty feet in 

 height, with a spreading top of fourteen feet, and measured eleven inches in 

 diameter four feet from the ground. They have proven most indifferent as to 

 location or soil, wliether on clay, loam, or gravel, and even on rocky ground, 

 provided there is a loose subsoil for the taproot to go down. It is perfectly 

 useless to plant nut-bearing trees where there is hardpan subsoil. These eight 

 year old trees averaged twenty pounds of fine walnuts, which sold at 10 cents 

 per pound, bringing $2 to the tree. 



Here is a line of fruit growing which offers good inducements, and now 

 that it has been proven that nuts of excellent quality not only grow, but 

 mature well in this State, more plantings should be made, so Oregon may become 

 an exporter, instead of importer, of all kinds of nuts. They begin to bear when 

 six years old, and from that time on they are a source of revenue. They seldom 

 fail to bear enough fruit to pay for the labor and expense of taking care of 

 them and gathering the crop. Growers should be careful to plant only such 

 varieties as are known to be suited to our climatic conditions. The varieties 

 of walnuts recommended are the B''ranquette and Mayette, which is known to 

 the trade as Grenoble ; of chestnuts, the Spanish, Italian, Numbo, and Paragon ; 

 almonds, Grosse Tendre, or Languedoc, for Northwestern and Eastern Oregon, 

 and the I. X. L., Princess, and Nonpariel for Southern Oregon. Filberts, do 

 exceedingly well here — the Duchally, Aveline, and English cobnut are best. 



Reynolds, the great horticulturist, writes : "The farm is a good place on 

 which to be born, on which to live through one's primie work, on which to 

 die." Sometimes it happens that one who has spent his boyhood on a farm 

 may, when he comes to struggle for himself, stray away to town and engage 

 in one of the numerous avocations which men there must pursue for a live- 

 lihood. However successful he may prove in business in town, there comes 

 a time, as old age approaches, when his thoughts turn back to his earlier life 

 in the country, its independence, its calm, healthful enjoyments amid scenes and 

 products of nature, and he feels a strong, overmastering desire to spend his 

 later years and die in the country, on the bosom of the great mother of us 

 all, generous, teeming earth. 



