THE FRUITS AND FLOWERS OF OREGON. 87 



The pear is equally a glorious success with the apple. Even in 

 what they call an off year, I have seen tree after tree loaded with 

 great pears weighing a pound each. Those most cultivated are the 

 Idaho, Beurre D'Anjou, Beurre Easter, Flemish Beauty, Bartlett, 

 Kieffer's Hybrid, Pound and Winter Nellis. The last, while rather 

 undersized, is a good keeper, of fine quality and on that account a 

 favorite. 



It would hardly be expected that figs and cotton could be sucess- 

 f ully raised in a latitude one degree north of St. Paul, but neverthe- 

 less fair samples of each of this year's growth were in display, from 

 The Dalles, in Wasco county, along with apples, pears, peaches, 

 prunes, plums and other fruits in rare perfection. As I looked over 

 this great display, I could not help thinking what Clarence Wedge, 

 Wyman Elliot, J. S. Harris, E. H, S. Dartt, J. M. Underwood and other 

 enthusiasts of our horticultural society would say if they could have 

 seen them with me. 



By the way, they raise a melon out here which is a great favorite 

 and sells in quantities, called the Cassaba. It looked to me like a 

 hybrid between the squash and the cantaloupe. They are for sale 

 everywhere in the grocery stores. They have a wrinkled, squashy 

 appearance on the outside, and a thick, high colored meat which is 

 considered a great dainty. I do not remember to have seen them at 

 our horticultural displays or fairs. 



Fruit raising is advancing with giant strides in this country and 

 it includes everything even to the most tender fruits, except the 

 true semi-tropical ones, like oranges and lemones. Deciduous 

 fruits raised here have a flavor and perfection far superior to the 

 California product, and that is the cause of the rapid transfer of 

 the fruit belt for apples, pears, prunes, plums and that class of 

 fruits, from California to Oregon, Idaho and Washington. 



I was just talking yesterday with a man at Albany, Linn county, 

 about eighty miles south of here, who sold over two thousand dol- 

 lars worth of Petite prunes from six acres of trees. There is no 

 doubt to my mind that with skilled treatment and careful atten- 

 tion there is big money in fruit raising in this country, but neglect 

 here as elsewhere will only result in failure or at least moderate 

 returns. 



As I write this, the window is raised, and a balmy breeze flutters 

 the curtains. The grass is a brilliant green, and myriads of flowers 

 sway gently on their long stems. Yet as I cast my ej'^es upward, I 

 see miles of snow fields flashing in the sunshine on the flanks of 

 Mount Hood, over two miles high, where endless winter looks down 

 upon the eternal spring of the Willamette and Columbia river val- 

 leys. And as I look on this morning's weather map, I see that it is 

 18° above zero at Bismarck and 26° at St. Paul. Such are the great 

 climatic and physical contrasts of this grand and glorious country 

 of ours. 



