28 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



fame, making its name a household word throughout the Western and 

 Middle States as "the land of big red apples." We, the sons of those 

 sturdy pioneers, glory in that title to-day. Other sections may appro- 

 priate, other sections may imitate, but the Willamette Valley will always 

 be the true, the original "land of big red apples." 



In these early days fabulous sums were obtained for the output of our 

 orchards. Twenty, thirty, forty, sixty dollars per box were not uncom- 

 mon. The product of a single tree was sold for $260, and a single box 

 containing 75 apples was sold by Mr. Lewelling of our valley for $75. 



San Francisco and the gold mines of California were our principal 

 customers. But the marvelous development of the fruit industry in 

 California, and the lack of transportation to more distant centers, robbed 

 the valley of its markets. The varied interests of farmers in the fertile 

 valley, where so many lines of industry thrived, caused the orchards 

 of those early days to be neglected, forgotten, and they soon passed into 

 a ghostly semblance of their primal glory. The majority of them 

 remain now, time-worn and rusty, hoary with moss and bending to 

 their mother earth as if to lay them down in a long rest. Yet these 

 old friends, in whose arms many of us have lain in our childhood days, 

 these old friends burdened with the infirmities of age and the ills which 

 their guardians have allowed to creep in, are each year trying to do their 

 best, pitifully trying to show us fruits of the quality of those 'early 

 days, faithfully trying to give returns for the little attention they have 

 received during a lifetime. 



But we of a younger generation, believing somewhat in a reincarna- 

 tion of souls, propose to give a new life and vigor to these old orchards, 

 by cutting them back to the ground, allowing them to grow a year and 

 top-grafting into Yellow Newtowns. Then by stringent legislation, 

 to compel owners to keep these rejuvenated trees free from pests. 

 AVith the encouragement, the care they will receive hereafter, these 

 old hard-working friends will 'again carry the fame of the Wil- 

 lamette Valley to the farther coast, and beyond. This matter is already 

 well in hand and some trees planted in '52 are to-day bearing fine crops 

 of newly grafted fruit. There is practically an unlimited market in 

 England for Yellow Newtowns to which we propose to cater. This 

 varietjr is a very slow grower in our valley and needs just the virile root- 

 system of these old orchards to give it thrift and vigor. 



However, it is not upon these pioneer orchards that the Willamette 

 Valley depends for the maintenance of her fame as the "land of the big 

 red apple." Large commercial orchards have been planted in various 

 sections of the valley and are annually producing great quantities of 

 fruit that, in each succeeding year, bring higher and higher prices in 

 Eastern markets. The work of growing apples for these sensitive and 

 hypercritical markets has become a specialty with many Oregon orchard- 



