224 Appendix. 



pations in which they are experienced, and take to fruit-raising, of which they 

 know nothing. With them failure is only a matter of time, unless they have 

 a large bank account. Horticulture is a special work and applied science. 

 In it expectations are never realized without painstaking work and trying pa- 

 tience. No one should think of going into it when the main inducement is 

 an enormous profit figured out on paper. There are growers in Oregon who 

 have made very large profits in a single year. In some years all have done 

 exceedingly well, but, generally speaking, it is not safe to count on a net profit 

 of more than $1.50 per acre in ordinary years for an orchard in full bearing. 

 This result, small as it may seem to the uninitiated, will come only to those 

 who go into the business understandingly, give it their best thoughts and care, 

 manage tlie fruit farm as they would any other business venture, and keep 

 abreast of the times. The failure of those who had no adequate knowledge 

 of fruit-growing, and who under the same circumstances would have failed 

 in any other enterprise, need not discourage any who intend to embark in hor- 

 ticulture. The number who have failed is very small in comparison to the 

 number who have succeeded. No State offers such excellent advantages as 

 Oregon does. There need be no fear of overproduction. The consumption of 

 fruits increases every year, and there is ready sale for all first-class fruits put on 

 the market. The enlarged use of fruit is due to two important factors : 



First — For several years past our fresh and evaporated fruits liave reached 

 the mining and manufacturing centers never reaclieu before, and within the 

 homes of families which, where exorbitant prices were the rule, could not 

 afford to buy fruit, and in extent an almost unlimited foreign market, especially 

 for our superior apples. It is well known tliat the ap-Ve is to the fruits what 

 the potato is to the vegetable line. — wlierever once iirtiOduced it is there to 

 stay. 



Second — The doctors, aided by the medical press, are strongly advocating 

 the consumption of fruits to promote health, not only in America, but abroad. 



Doctor Bentzer, of Germany, the noted specialist, and Dr. Sophie Lepper. 

 tlie great I^^nglish food specialist, give their emphatic indorsement of fruit 

 as hygienic agents. Doctor Bentzer dwells particularly on the apple, and de- 

 clares that an apple eaten immediately before bedtime will promote general 

 healtli ; its dietical as well as alimentary substances are of tlie highest order : 

 it contains more phosphoric acid in an easily digestible combination than any 

 other vegetable product. While Dr. Sophie Lepper says : "Apples supply the 

 higher nerve and muscle food, but do not give stay : prunes afford the higliest 

 nerve and brain food, supply heat and waste, but are not muscle feeding ; wal- 

 nuts give nerve and brain food, muscle, heat, and waste." What a happy com- 

 bination, apples, prunes and walnuts. 



The era of higli, exorbitant prices has past, and we do not want it to re- 

 turn, for when prices advance consumption decreases, which is not desirable. 

 It has been demonstrated time and again that prunes at 4 cents and apples 

 and pears at 75 cents a box of forty pounds, the lowest price ever paid for 

 merchantable fruit, will net the grower $100 to .$1.50 an acre for an orchard in 

 full bearing : while we know that good choice marketable apples and pears for 

 export trade sell from $1 to $2 per box. It could stand a considerable reduction 

 from the first figures named and still leave horticulture more profitable than 

 other agricultural pursuits. 



While waiting for his orchard to bear, which usually takes from five to 

 eight years, the orchardist lias an avenue of profit opened to him in the grow- 

 ing and marketing of small fruits. The demand for strawberries, currants, 

 gooseberries, raspberries, and blackberries for home consumption, for export, and 

 for canning establishments is very large, and is seldom met by the supply. 

 Many carloads cf these fruits, especially strawberries, as stated heretofore, 

 are shipped every year to the mining and stock-raising districts of Idaho. 

 Montana, North and Soutii Dakota, and Wyoming. Shipments of these berries 

 are often made to St. Paul and Omaha ; yes, even to Chicago, yielding most 



