20 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
OREGON FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
The fruit growing industry of Oregon is most extensive in 
the region lying between the Cascade and Coast ranges. The 
value of orchard products in 1899 was $906,015, of which 
amount Jackson and Douglas counties contributed more than 
one third. Since 1890 the total number of orchard trees in 
the state has increased from 1,757,893 to 6,314,232. Of this 
increase the gain in plum and prune trees constitutes 49.8 per 
cent, and that in apple trees, 34.2 per cent. During the 
decade the number of apple trees has more than doubled, but 
their percentage of the total number of orchard trees in the 
state has decreased from 7*2.2 to 44.8 per cent. Linn^ 
Clackamas, Marion and Douglas counties together reported 
over one million apple trees. 
The total value of nursery stock sold in 1899 was $151,498, 
reported by the operator of 74 farms and nurseries Of this 
number, 33 derived their principal income from the nursery 
business. They had 1,847 acres of land, valued at $163,600; 
buildings worth $45,300 ; implements and machinery, $7,200; 
and live stock, $4,770. Their total income was $154,530. 
AT VINCENNES, IND. 
Vincennes, Ind., Feb. 27 . —H. M. Simpson & Sons : “We 
have purchased a farm of 125 acres near here to plant to apple 
orchard. We already have about 200 acres ten years old in 
the apple belt of Illinois and think it so good a thing that we 
are planting more. Southern Indiana is particularly adapted 
to growing the Wine Sap to perfection and we are going to 
grow a model orchard of them. 
“ The outlook for nursery trade for Spring is very bright 
and we are already selling very close on many lines. The 
nurserymen of the United States surely have reason to be 
thankful.” 
LIMIT REACHED IN GEORGIA ? 
At the recent meeting of the Georgia Horticultural Society, 
H. A. Mathews, Fort Valley, read a paper on “Profit Limit in 
Fruit Growing”, in which he said: 
“There is now a strong competition by Texas growers with 
us in the western markets. In fact, this year we have not been 
able to do much in the great western market by reason of the 
fact that Texas was sending in large quantities of her peaches, 
which, strange to say, were reported as being of excellent 
quality. This is a new competition with our section, and, like 
everything that those Texas people do, they threaten to over¬ 
do it. 
“It would not be surprising to have Texas some summer not 
far distant deluge the entire country with her peaches, much 
as she now knocks the props from under the cotton market, 
causing the Georgia cotton planter much chagrin and indig¬ 
nation. 
Considering all these things, it must be admitted that the 
future of the peach-grower here does not present a clear 
horizon. 
“I do not desire to raise the alarm of the growers of peaches 
by the suggestions which I have made, but I think that it will 
be best for us all to consider the necessity that is ahead of 
us to make better fruit and not so much of it. If we succeed 
in outliving the San Jose scale and also outlive the glut which 
threatens us, and which I think is practically certain, those of 
us who are peach-growers of the incurable habit may, if we 
persist and survive, find a time when we can market our 
peaches at a fair profit to reward our efforts and our patience. 
“I do not believe that the large corporation orchards will 
continue long in Georgia after we reach the coming glut. 
They will find their dividend-making capacity gone and will 
be first to succumb to the necessity of meeting the new state 
of things by going out of business and selling their peach orch¬ 
ard land for cotton, corn and sweet potatoes. The business 
will then, I venture to predict, settle down to a basis of mode¬ 
rate profits, not less nor greater than those of other branches 
of farming in Middle Georgia. Of course, many an orchard 
will be cut down and planted into staple crops, and those who 
continue in the business of growing fruit will be careful horti¬ 
culturists, whose superior skill and intelligence will make their 
success. They will produce finer peaches and more of them 
on the same amount of land and the same number of trees. 
“While I am in the predicting business in this matter I will 
surmise that some lucky day the freight on peaches to the east 
will be reduced, when the railroads find that the peaches can 
not be shipped without reduction. I think that to predict a 
reduction sooner would be doing violence to all probabilities. 
‘“As to how soon the congested state of the market will come, 
I think that I can say that in three years the great probability 
is, as appears from the increase in the plantings, that the peach 
crops of this section will either be sold without profit or not 
shipped at all. 
‘‘What remedy there may be in the canning industry I am 
not prepared to say. I know that at Fort Valley, where there 
were three canneries running two years ago at full capacity, 
there is only one the present season, and this is doing little. I 
know that the canning business was not profitable last year on 
account of the heavy supply of canned peaches that was manu¬ 
factured. 
“All these things should make us consider, before we place 
our orders for trees to plant another season.” 
TO PLANT A GREAT ORCHARD. 
James McNicol, president of the Lost Springs Nursery Co., 
at Lost Springs, Kansas, writes to the National Nurseryman 
that he will establish a nursery at Roswell, N. M., this spring, 
planting 300,000 apple grafts and other stock. A contract 
has been made by a land, irrigation and orchard company, by 
which Mr. McNicol is to rent 640 acres of land, to be irri¬ 
gated by the company, into an apple orchard. Mr. McNicol 
estimates that 64,000 trees will be required to plant the land. 
The apple edition of the Roswell Journal says : 
He will put in so much of of the land each year, and care for each 
part of it for five years from the time of planting the trees. At the 
expiration of five years from the time of planting the company will 
take charge of one-half the land, and will deed the other to half Mr. 
McNicol. There are now on the ground sufficient number of trees to 
set out 160 acres, which is the number that will be put in this winter. 
The yearling trees hereafter to be planted will be budded and raised on 
the land here, instead of being shipped from the nursery. The trees 
that perish after plant will be replanted. Only three varieties are 
being used in this orchard, viz : Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis and 
Wine Sap. 
