Appendix. 187 



NEEDS OF THE FRUIT TRADE. 



PAPER READ BEFORE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, AT 

 BUFFALO, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 12 AND 13, 1901. 



By Hon. Henry E. Dosch, Portland, Oregon. 



Speaking for the Pacific Nortliwest, of whicli portion of our county I 

 have a more intimate knowledge in horticulture, particularly Oregon, I 

 beg to say, that this State earned early in the development of the fruit 

 industry, the soubriquet of the "land of red apples," and the banner then 

 hoisted has remained at its masthead ever since. 



The first planting of fruits in Oregon that we have any authentic data 

 of, was in 1847, when Mr. Henderson Lewelling, of Iowa, brought across 

 the plains several hundred yearling grafted trees of all varieties then 

 grown and known in the middle West. These trees were planted in 

 boxes, fitted in a wagon and carefully watered and cared for on their 

 long journey of six months, with an ox team, three thousand miles, to 

 the Willamette valley in Oregon, where the first orchard was planted and 

 from which developed the large fruit industry of today. It may be inter- 

 esting to you to know that the first apples of these trees were sold for 

 one dollar each and those exported to San Francisco in 1853 for two 

 dollars per pound; prices now received for forty-five-pound boxes of apples. 



Out of this small planting of trees made in 1848 grew the orchards of 

 the present time, consisting of commercial orchards — old orchards not 

 being figured — as follows: 



Apples 16.500 acres 



Pears 2.100 acres 



Prunes 27.000 acres 



Cherries 1,200 acres 



Peaches 1,800 acres 



Mixed plantations 4,700 acres 



Total 53,300 acres 



The newer plantations being principally winter apples expressly grown 

 for foreign markets. 



My observation at the Columbia Exposition at Chicago, the Trans-Mis- 

 sissippi Exposition at Omaha, and at this Pan-American Exposition at 

 Buffalo, leads me to the conclusion that the apple is the commercial fruit 

 par excellence of the whole world, as a fresh fruit, followed by our fine 

 Italian, or as they are known to the trade, "Oregon," prunes as an evap- 

 orated product; tnese are the fruits we can consider commercially only 

 for export trade. 



The subject of markets is perhaps the most serious problem confronting 

 the fruit grower, and when we look over the large area that has been and 



