24 • PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS CONVENTION. 



peach culture are very good also in this valley. The markets, too, are 

 accommodating, the northwest coast cities growing rapidly, and the 

 product of the different varieties of peaches produced here coming to 

 maturity after the California crop and in advance of the Columbia 

 peach districts. It is customary to remove these peach tree fillers at 

 about the tenth year. Some are setting them in the apple tuee-row Mix- 

 way only; some in the center of the square. Of course, it adds greatly 

 to the labor of cultivation. 



While it is true that with the scale and the codling moth to combat, 

 the southern Oregon orehardist can always keep busy, yet it is also 

 true that, aside from these two foes, apple culture in this valley is beset 

 with less trials than in almost any other district. Young trees are 

 afflicted with green aphis, but the tobacco mixtures are found very effi- 

 cacious, and fortunately there is but little trouble with the woolly aphis. 

 Anthracnose at one time caused some solicitude, but Bordeaux applied 

 before the leaves drop and again later in the season not only acts as a 

 preventive, but effects a cure if the trouble is not of long standing. 

 Apple scab is not a menace, the long dry summers protecting from this 

 foe to the yellow apple. Some varieties of the apple are rather sus- 

 ceptible to the pear blight, but with ordinary caution it is handled suc- 

 cessfully. 



The class of men who are devoting their energies to apple culture in 

 this section is perhaps the best guarantee we have of its continued suc- 

 cess. There are probably two thirds of the men engaged in horticulture 

 in the Rogue River Valley who have retired from active business or pro- 

 fessional life, drawn back to the soil by that agrarian movement which 

 bids fair to reverse the current from the farm to the city ; and but very 

 few orchards in this valley are in the hands of tenants. There are far 

 too many large holdings in the valley, inviting labor troubles in the 

 future. Thus far, the output of the orchards has been easily handled, 

 but each year for several years to come should double the number of 

 cars shipped, and it is foreseen now that the surest provision aeainst 

 labor scarcity will arise from the small land holder with surplus teams 

 and help within his own family. Many of the large orchardists at this 

 time are enabled to compass their field work in due season by offering 

 especial inducements to neighboring men. with teams and equipment, 

 and this phase of the business affords the man with a family of growing 

 boys the opportunity to develop his own small orchard and obtain the 

 wherewithal to live and improve his tract with surplus work for others, 

 at very remunerative figures. 



The regularity of crop production is here remarkable. Four times 

 within the last ten years good apple crops have obtained high prices, 

 owing to the short crops in the Eastern States. This has much to do 

 with the immense returns obtained by our orchardists each year. Late 

 spring frosts cause some damage, but with commendable system, and 

 with the assistance of the government pathologist now stationed at Med- 

 ford. during the last season telephone alarms were sounded on critical 

 nights, and orchard heaters and small piles of light, dry wood, ignited 

 with kerosene, saved the crop on low ground and demonstrated the pos- 

 sibility of thus saving the crop every year. This work was really with- 

 out the province of the pathologist, but at the solicitation of our horti- 

 culturists, and with the consent of the weather bureau officials. Mr. 



