02 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
almost fabulous prices in California, and fruit growing and 
the nursery business developed with great rapidity in Oregon 
from 1850 to I860. Nurserymen were enterprising and 
brought from the east almost everything in the fruit line 
which gave promise of being valuable in Oregon. In 1858, 
1859 and 1800 the columns of the Oregon Fanner were 
crowded with ariteles on fruit growing and the cards of 
nurserymen were numerous in its advertising columns. 
Among these advertisers were Fuelling & Merrick, J. D. 
Walling, G. W. Walling & Co., J. W. Ladd, Philip Ritz, 
William Simmons, R. C. Geer, David I). Prettyman, John R. 
Porter and Daniel Brock. Among other nurserymen then 
in the state* were Henry Miller and J. H. Lambert, who were 
in partnership somewhere about that time. 
About 1800, fruit trees began bearing extensively in Cal¬ 
ifornia the price of Oregon dropped from its high standard 
and the nursery business languished. Articles on fruit 
growing became rare in the columns of the Oregon Farmer; 
the advertisements of nurserymen were no more to be found 
in it, and finally the publication of the paper ceased. 
In 1860 the retail price of apple trees in Oregon was ten to 
twenty-five cents each, and of pear trees thirty^ to seventy- 
five cents. As the demand for trees declined in Oregon the 
nurserymen were compelled to look outside of the state for 
a market. In the month of March, 1861, a shipment of 
6,100 trees was made to Victoria, British Columbia. The 
more enterprising nurserymen began to push sales of trees 
in California and by slow degrees the business was built up 
again, but not on a large scale until the great fruit planting 
began in the decade of 1880-1890. Oregon nurserymen 
by that time were finding customers in California who would 
take carload lots of trees, and there was a sudden great in¬ 
crease in the demand for trees in Oregon, Washington and 
Idaho. The tree planting boom reached its highest point 
about 1892, and the great demand for trees, and comparatively 
high prices obtained for them, induced a large number of 
men to engage in the business, many of whom, unfortunately, 
were not fitted by training, or in other ways, to be nursery¬ 
men. The sudden collapse of the boom in 1893-1894 was 
disastrous to nurserymen; trees were offered for sale at 
prices which would hardly pay for digging and crating or 
boxing them. 
PAVED WAY FOR DEVELOPMENT. 
The terrible depression in the business not only drove the 
unfit out of the field, but almost or quite broke up those who 
deserved to fare better. This disaster, however, paved the 
way for a development of the nursery business of the state 
which would never have been possible under the method of 
doing business which prevailed prior to the crash. Under 
the old system the nurserymen made no s}^stematic effort 
to sell trees direct to planters. They depended mainly on 
catalogues for the sale of their trees and most of the sales, 
were to local dealers in trees, who usually styled themselves 
nurserymen, or agents for nurserymen, but were in fact only 
retail sellers. 
The hard times brought new blood into the business, and 
with it the methods which the experience of successful nurs¬ 
erymen of older states have found essential to success. The 
business was pushed and customers were developed. 
The nursery business in Oregon may be said to have been 
fairly on its feet again in 1900, since that tune its develop¬ 
ment has been remarkably rapid. The more enterprising 
nurserymen of the state have worked up the sale of Oregon 
grown nursery stock throughout all the great expanse of 
country, from Alberta and Manitoba on the north to Arizona, 
New Mexico, Texas and even old Mexico on the South The 
business of a single nursery provides employment for mor 
persons than any other one industry at the capital city of 
the state, a place of over twelve thousand inhabitants. 
The nursery business now brings more money into the 
state than any other one horticultural line, excepting apples 
and prunes. 
GROWTH NOT DUE TO BOOMING. 
The great growth of the business in the past four years 
has not been due to any boom in orcharding. In a formers 
period of growth nurseries multiplied and their business 
grew because of a craze for orchard planting. The growth 
of the last period has been the result of the efforts of the nurs¬ 
erymen themselves, who have systematically worked up a 
demand for trees, and have pushed into new and undeveloped 
regions and created there a demand which they were pre¬ 
pared to supply. The leading nurseries of the state are now 
conducted with the thorough organization and systematic 
methods which are characteristic of all great modern enter¬ 
prises. The change from the old system to the new worked 
hardship on some of the worthy nurserymen of the old regime, 
but it was a change which meant progress, and placed the 
nursery business of the state fully abreast of the times. 
From the starting point to the present time the nurserymen 
of Oregon have been factors of great importance in promoting 
the welfare of the people of the state and adding to the wealth 
of the state as a whole. 
The limits of this paper do not permit reference to the very 
valuable work which has been done by Oregon nurserymen 
in originating and propagating new fruits which have proved 
of great value. 
OREGON NURSERY COMPANY. 
Salem, Ore., May 12 —“We had the largest season’s busi¬ 
ness we have ever had and while the latter end of the season 
has been somewhat later than usual, we find that collections 
are fairly as good as last year. 
“From the present outlook we believe that the nursery 
business on the Pacific coast is generally very prosperous 
and there is a bright outlook for the future. All lines of 
nursery stock never were so closely cleaned up aS during the 
past season with us and many varieties of trees were entirely 
sold out long before the end of the season. This was espec¬ 
ially so in cherries and peaches. 
“The winter with us was very favorable for the shipment 
of nursery stock. Our first shipment was made on the 13th 
day of October, 1903, and on April 12th we were still sending 
out odd shipments of trees, making seven months of a con¬ 
tinuous shipping season; and during this entire period there 
was probably not a day in which we could not ship trees . 
We challenge any other section of the United States to sur¬ 
pass or even equal this record for a long shipping season.” 
