FOOTHILLS FOR FRUIT.

FRUIT RAISING IN SOUTHERN OREGON.
Mr. Miller Tells How the Growers Fared This Year--Influx of Californians.

Foothill Orchards.

A Fruit Country.

Ten Acres Enough.

List of Fruitgrowers.

Rural Free Delivery.

E.C.P. [E. C. Pentland]

OUR LEADING INDUSTRY.

Medford Daily Tribune, May 1, 1909, page 2


Better Fruit Publishing Company.
    Dear Sirs: I have been requested to read a paper on "Fruit Growing in Oregon" before the meeting of the Montgomery County Horticultural Association in May. I want all the light on the subject I can get. I was brought up in that region, and remember the first apple I ever saw. It was a big red one from the Willamette Valley, and was packed over the mountains on a mule's back in the year 1855, and was sold in the Rogue River Valley for one dollar. With that recollection it does not seem high at all to get Oregon apples here for a nickel apiece. The interest of horticulturists here is aroused on the subject, and as the business of fruit culture has improved somewhat since I left the state in 1874 I need to get late information. Can I get back numbers of your magazine? May I depend on you to guide me and help me? It may be that I can help Oregon, the state of my pride, in some small way.
"Miscellaneous Letters and Communications," Better Fruit, July 1909, page 58


    The fruit growers of Rogue River Valley have exceptional advantages for profitably marketing their fruit. The freight rate for this valley to the Eastern markets is the same as is had by all the other Pacific Coast fruit districts. The rate on apples to New York is $1.00 a hundred and on pears it is $1.50 a hundred pounds. This rate is but little more than that paid by the Michigan, Missouri and other fruit districts on shipments to New York and it is given by the Southern Pacific in carrying out that company's policy of building up a big fruit tonnage as is being done in building up the freight traffic from other industries. These fruit shipments are given fast service, and this with the refrigerator cars and the remarkable quality for keeping and for resisting travel wear enables Rogue River pears, apples, peaches, grapes and other fruits to reach distant markets in as perfect condition as to nearby markets. Within another year a pre-cooling plant will be established here and that will enable the early fruits, like peaches and Bartlett pears, to be sent to the most distant markets or to be held when a glut in the market has temporarily depressed prices.
    Another great advantage that the Rogue River fruit growers have is the profit-saving method that they have for marketing their fruit. This is done by means of cooperative associations, of which there are four in the valley, composed of the fruit growers of a district and which has the entire handling of the fruit crop from the time it is matured to the distribution of the proceeds of the sales to the members. This method eliminates the local middlemen and their excessive toll, which in fruit districts where the growers are not organized often takes all the profits and leaves the growers but a bare living. These associations have each a manager, employed by the year, whose duty it is to enforce the association's rules for picking, grading, packing and loading, and he also has full control of the marketing of the fruit under direction of the board of directors. Through these associations, Rogue River fruit is put direct into the markets of all the principal cities of the United States and of Europe, Canada, Alaska, Siberia, Japan, China, Hawaii, Mexico and other countries. Such good prices are had that the best orchards and vineyards are paying a net dividend each year on a valuation of from $1000 to $7000 per acre. For the Ashland district the Ashland Fruit & Produce Association handles the fruit. This association is one of the leading factors in building up the fruit industry in this section of Rogue River Valley and of making Ashland one of the most thriving and prosperous of the small cities of the Pacific Coast.
    Experts of the Department of Agriculture have identified nearly 1200 different pests that are destructive to fruits, vegetables, grains and grasses in the United States. Of this great number but 22 have been able to effect an entrance into Rogue River Valley. That so few pests have invaded Rogue River Valley is due to its isolation from other fruit districts and to the enforcement for the past three years of the state fruit pest laws which forbids the shipping of diseased trees, shrubs, plants and fruit. With the continuous chain of mountains all around the valley a barrier is formed that prevents pests from reaching here by natural means so that the pests now here were brought in on shipments of trees, plants, seeds and fruit, they getting in here before the present state pest laws were enacted and put in force. From this on there is little likelihood of more pests getting into the valley, for they will be intercepted by the rigid inspection that is made on all shipments of trees and fruits that are received here, but if a new pest does get in it will be soon discovered and eradicated.
    No other county in Oregon has so large a corps of fruit inspectors as has Jackson County, or is doing so thorough work in inspection both of orchards and vineyards and of imported trees. While other counties rely on one inspector to do the work this county has four inspectors, all thoroughly posted and energetic men and not getting nor holding their jobs by political pull. These inspectors are on duty for the entire time, and with the hearty cooperation that the fruit growers are giving in this pest warfare there is every certainty that within five years the 22 different kinds of pests now in the county will be reduced to half that number and those remaining will be so diminished that they will cease to be a menace to the fruit industry. The fruit growers being so largely in the majority in the Rogue River Valley will ensure that the pest laws will always be enforced with vigor, and this will make fruit growing more profitable in two ways, for it will decrease the cost production fully 10 percent less than in the pest-ridden sections and it will raise the quality of the fruit and that will enable better prices to be had. One of the greatest menaces to the orchards in the Eastern states are the countless thousands of wild fruit trees and shrubs that are a breeding place and harbor for all manner of pests. This danger does not threaten the fruit growers of Rogue River Valley, for there are very few wild fruit trees and bushes.
Valley Record, Ashland, August 4, 1909, page 1


    The Nothwell orchard, better known as the Erdman place, Medford, Oregon, containing 160 acres, 120 acres set to orchard, sold for $32,000.
Better Fruit, September 1909, page 22


    If Aladdin had rubbed the chimney of his magic lamp in modern times he could have caused no greater changes than those which have taken place in the Rogue River Valley during the past few years. From a partly desolate land of alternating meadows and mountains, marked here and there by a miner's cabin or Rogue River Indian village, the valley has become one of the garden spots of the world, sending its luscious fruit into all quarters of the globe. On every hand in place of the unkempt meadows and timbered uplands now stretch well-tended, clodless orchards, surrounding neatly painted homes, barns and packing-houses, all signs of the habitation of happy, prosperous, industrious men.
    It was only in 1884 that the Oregon and California Railroad (now Southern Pacific) built its line down through this region, and the real growth of the country did not begin until long after transportation facilities materialized. True, during the boom which immediately followed the coming of the railroad, such men as J. H. Stewart, of Medford, and later the Carter Brothers of Ashland laid the foundation of the fruit industry. But the time was not yet ripe, the boom was short lived and the valley passed into nearly two decades of peaceful slumber.
    It was only five years ago that the Rogue River pears and apples began to be known in the world markets on account of their fine flavor and rare keeping qualities. Then the good prices for the fruit came, and the real throb of life was instilled into the valley. The old settlers found that they had a fortune in their bearing orchards and set out more trees. Capital and homeseekers were attracted to the locality and straightaway land prices began to double. The people could not realize the true value of their orchards, and many of the oldtimers sold out to eastern tenderfeet at what they considered fancy prices only to see the buyers pay for their orchards out of the first two or three crops and then sell at twice the former figure to other easterners who would repeat the performance. On account of orchard land being so cheap in proportion to the returns a vast number of fortunes have been quickly made, and a large proportion of the inhabitants of Southern Oregon now possess property worth from $50,000 to $300,000.
    The people who made fortunes out of the fruit industry may be divided into three classes: first, the early settler who by the sweat of his brow made his orchard in the meantime supporting himself by diversified farming; second, the tradesman who plying a business in the town developed an orchard from his net earnings, and third, the capitalist who more recently has been reaping rich returns from his investments in fruit lands.
    A type of the successful orchardist who has made his way by being first on the ground and sticking to it through thick and thin is John G. Gore, the owner of the heaviest-bearing Bartlett pear orchard in the valley. His orchard, seven acres in extent, is situated on the heavy black loam of Bear Creek bottom and is irrigated by means of a gas engine pump from Bear Creek. The orchard is part of the donation claim taken up by Emerson E. Gore, the father of John Gore, in 1852, the trees being set out by the old gentleman in 1888. The father at the time of the building of the railroad in 1884 had a three-acre orchard which during the railroad boom brought him big dividends. This led him to plant his new orchard. It was remarkable the judgment with which the varieties for the new orchard were selected. The block of apples consisted of the Yellow Newtown, Spitzenberg and Baldwin, while seven acres was planted solid to Bartlett pears. Every one of these varieties has since then proven itself good, and the son is now reaping the benefit of his father's wise selection.
    During the '80s the Gores' 3-acre tract of trees became infected with San Jose scale. As the old pioneer tells, "We did not know of sprays in those days, and when the San Jose scale infected my apple trees I dug them up, for I would not raise diseased fruit." Although with the knowledge of the spray such an action is no longer necessary, it was this spirit which made Rogue River Valley what it is, one of the cleanest fruit-growing sections of the world.
    The seven-acre Bartlett pear orchard now brings a princely income to its owner, the seven carloads shipped in 1907 bringing returns amounting to over a thousand dollars an acre. Last year the prices paid for pears were emphatically off color, but even then Mr. Gore's returns from his Bartletts amounted to $645 an acre. This year the prices are good and his harvest is enormous, filling ten cars.
    Mr. Gore has worked hard and used much originality in the care of his orchard and well deserves his present success. It was he who introduced smudging in the Rogue River Valley, saving his crop from the heavy frosts in the spring of 1908. His system is to build wood fires between every four trees. This, of course, takes a great deal of labor, especially if the cold snap is at all prolonged.
    Mr. Gore's methods in taking care of his orchard are original, many of them entirely at variance with scientific fruit growing. Instead of keeping the center of the tree open, he packs it full of pears. Thus by keeping his fruit-bearing limbs close to the tree instead of long and tapering, he is able to put more fruit upon them without fear of breaking the limbs. Mr. Gore does not thin to gain in size; his heavy black loam and plentiful water supply make this unnecessary. He thins just enough to keep his trees from breaking down. As stated his methods are not such as can be applied to the ordinary orchard, but the load that Mr. Gore packs into his trees is astonishing and is one of the sights that makes the eastern visitors gasp.
    Mr. Gore describes his method of irrigating thus: "I try to supply at each irrigation an amount of water equal to a good rain. I do not believe in drenching my orchard nor in applying water too frequently. I have noticed certain seasons in which the fruit throughout the valley was of good size, and from these good years I have learned the proper time to water. A rain in the early part of June spoils the hay, but makes the fruit. If this rain does not come I supply the necessary moisture by irrigation. Rains in the forepart of July and August also have always benefited the fruit, and at these times I again irrigate my orchard if the necessary moisture is not forthcoming from natural sources. I have been irrigating my trees for four years and find that double crops can be gained by the limited use of water."
    The Bates brothers, William and James, for 15 years barbers in Medford, are fine representatives of the second class of fortune gainers. These men with their father, J. T. Bates, arrived in Medford entirely without means. But the sons had their trade and soon were earning good weekly wages. Different from most barbers, the Bates brothers were ambitious, saved their money, and instead of letting what they heard from the men they shaved pass in one ear and out the other, they retained and digested it. J. H. Stewart, the father of the fruit industry in Southern Oregon, was one of the men they came daily in contact with in the pursuance of their calling. He convinced them of the fortune to be made in the fruit industry. As luck would have it their father, J. T. Bates, was an experienced fruit man, having owned an orchard near Eldon, Ia., until the poor crop from the cold blizzards of that country broke him up in business. In 1900 the Bates boys were able to borrow enough money to buy a $2000 ranch, 115 acres in extent, three miles east of Medford. On the ranch they placed their father as superintendent and then with a vim entered into their eight-year campaign of development. The land was covered with chaparral and manzanita brush and scrub oak. This must be cleared, trees must be planted and the young orchard need be cultivated, pruned and sprayed. This farm formed a savings bank for the weekly earnings of the Bates brothers and kept them frugal and industrious in their habits. But the eight years' grind is over now, and although the sons keep on barbering it is from force of habit and not from need, as their orchard has come into bearing and with another year will bring an income worthy of the care that the father has expended upon it. Eight years ago the ranch, as stated, was bought for $2000; now, with a great deal of coaxing, the Bates orchard might be bought for $100,000.
    It is to the venturesome spirit of Dr. E. B. Pickel, a well-known physician of Southern Oregon, that the people of the Rogue River Valley owe the opening up to the planting of orchards of the large tract of land known as Big Sticky, however, better known among those familiar with the locality by several unmentionable aliases.
    In winter the roads through this district are impassable to a wagon. Even in a light buggy a driver must get out every few rods and knock the mud off the wheels with a club. To work this land as an orchard needs to be worked was considered impossible, and there was little belief that the land would ever grow trees. In fact grave doubts were expressed as to Dr. Pickel's mental arrangement when he, in the season of 1905, set out 8,000 trees, covering 140 acres. But when he followed this up by planting 4,000 more trees the next year it was freely predicted that Dr. Pickel was heading for the wall. Little did anyone, even the doctor, think that three years after the first planting the orchard would be sold at a profit of nearly $100,000.
    The story of Dr. Pickel's buy on Big Sticky reads like a fairy tale. It appears that the doctor and his wife had nearly completed plans for a trip abroad, but through the influence of Dr. Van Dyke, of Grants Pass, they became interested in orchard land and decided that if a suitable buy offered itself they would take it and postpone the trip abroad. One day Dr. Pickel was called on a case over into the Big Sticky district and his driver, who was familiar with the country, pointed out the Bush ranch of 161 acres which was about to be foreclosed by the state for the interest on money borrowed from the school land fund. Next to it was the Smith ranch of 240 acres which the driver said could be bought for $4000. Right then and there, Dr. Pickel forgot all his desires to see the cathedrals and art galleries of the old world. Instead he bought both farms, paying $6500 for the 401 acres.
    The trees set out on the 401 Ranch, as the orchard was called, grew fine, despite the dismal predictions. The soil was even found workable if handled at the right time and in the right way. The second year Dr. Pickel bought 160 more acres, but the farm was still known as the 401 Ranch. Last spring, feeling that the undertaking was too great for a single man to handle, the doctor sold out to a stock company for $110,000. The land, the trees, the improvements and the labor expended cost Dr. Pickel $35,000, leaving the difference as a handsome profit on a three-years' investment. The doctor has since then bought another place which he is developing. Now, nearly the whole of Big Sticky is being set out or has been set out to orchard.
    Hunt Lewis, Walter F. Burrell and Captain Gordon Voorhies, all of Portland; Dr. Page, R. H. Parsons and C. E. Whisler, from the East, are representative of that class of moneyed men who, during the past several years, have gathered rich returns from investments in Rogue River fruit lands. Hunt Lewis, in 1902, bought the famous Bear Creek Orchard of 200 acres from Weeks & Orr, for $35,000. Strange to say, the people at that time thought Hunt Lewis had much the worse of the bargain. From the 85 acres of bearing orchard Mr. Lewis took off gigantic crops, averaging in receipts $1000 an acre, during the good years. In the summer of 1908 Hunt Lewis sold to a company composed of John D. Olwell, C. E. Whisler, Clarke & Meyers, for $160,000. These men now hold the property at $250,000, and judging from the returns expected from this year's crop, that figure is a reasonable one. Fifteen carloads have already been shipped from the 21 acres or Bartlett pears, and the picking is not yet completed.
    The Burrell Investment Company, which has 600 acres in trees and nearly 200 acres of the tract in bearing, is composed of Portland capitalists. Captain George Voorhies bought 152 acres from J. H. Stewart in 1900 for $22,000. This piece of land contained some of the oldest pear trees in the valley, which, in the banner fruit year of 1907, yielded $2000 worth of pears to the acre. After a few years Captain Voorhies turned his interests over to the Burrell Investment Company, which is now the largest single fruit grower in Southern Oregon.
    One of the prettiest apple and pear orchards in the valley is the Hillcrest, four miles east of Medford, which was sold by Will Stewart in 1905 to J. W. Perkins for $22,000, by whom in July, 1908, it was resold for $75,000 to a stock company, in which the majority of shares was held by R. H. Parsons, of Seattle. This year the Hillcrest Company counts on a $35,000 crop, as its trees are loaded to the limit.
    Medford, Or., September 1.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, September 5, 1909, page F2


    MEDFORD, Ore., September 22, 1909.--According to the estimates of experienced men, the fruit crop of western Oregon this season will be about 1,100 cars of apples and 450 cars of pears. Hood River Valley will require 125 cars to carry its apples to market and 6 cars to carry its pears. The Grande Ronde Valley will want 150 cars for apples and 10 cars for pears. The Milton and Freewater district will require an equal number, while the Rogue River Valley will need 465 cars for its apples, 305 cars for its pears and 95 cars for its peaches. The orchards in the immediate vicinity of Medford will fill 400 cars of apples and 300 cars with pears.
    The Rogue River pears, like the Hood River apples, bring the highest prices. Pears will not keep like apples will, however, and are sold by the box at auction immediately upon arrival at market to commission men. A trainload of pears is made up here daily and hurried eastward on passenger schedule time. A car will be dropped off at Omaha, another will be run down to Kansas City, others to St. Louis, more to Chicago, and the rest will go on to New York, Philadelphia and Boston, dropping off a car at Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo by the way, where the commission men are notified and the auction sales take place.
    The bids are governed by the state of the market and the quality of the pears--the old law of supply and demand. Early arrivals have sold as high as $6 a box in the New York and Boston markets. This year the Bartletts are selling at an average of $3.40 per box. One carload sold for $3.70 per box in Boston; another sold as low as $2.80.
    The big orchard men, who are able to fill cars from their own trees, handle their own business, but the fruit from the smaller orchards is handled by an association, and each contributor receives credit on the books when his fruit is sold
    The world's record for prices is held by the Bear Creek Orchard Company, near Medford, which sold a carload of Comice pears at auction in New York City in 1907 for $4,622.80. The best previous price for a carload of fruit was obtained by the Hillcrest Orchard Company in New York in 1906, amounting to $3,450. During January last (1909) a shipment of Comice pears from the Bear Creek orchard sold in London for $10.08 per box wholesale, which is about 20 cents a pound. The highest price ever received, per box, in this country was $6.60 in America, at Montreal, in 1908. The highest price ever received in the United States was $4.60 a box for Bartlett pears. The highest average on record stands in favor of the Anjou pear, which sold for $4 a box during an entire season. The highest record for any orchard is credited to Mr. Hopkins, formerly of Chicago, who sold $19,000 worth of fruit from sixteen and a half acres in 1907, and Rae & Hatfield, whose orchard of seven acres of Bartlett pears, 102 trees to the acre, yielded seven boxes to the tree, and sold for an average of $2,200 per acre.
    It is asserted that the average profits on Medford pears during the last five years have been $700 an acre.
    The Fruit Growers' Association furnishes me the following statement, showing the maximum and minimum prices received for fruit by the orchardmen in the vicinity of Medford during the year 1908. It is too early to furnish a statement for 1909:

	Comice pears	$	4.56 to	$	6.60 per box
	Bartlett pears		2.00 to		2.75 per box
	Anjou pears		2.50 to		2.70 per box
	Howell pears		2.00 to		2.95 per box
	Bosc pears		2.60 to		2.80 per box
	Winter Nelis pears		1.75 to		2.90 per box
	Newtown apples		2.50 to		3.00 per box
	Spitzenberg apples		2.00 to		3.00 per box
	Jonathan apples		2.00 to		2.50 per box
	Cherries		0.08 to		0.11 per lb.
	Apricots		1.25 to		1.40 per crate
	Peaches		0.60 to		1.20 per crate
	Grapes		0.06 to		0.10 per lb.

    Jackson County, in which Rogue River Valley is located, forms the southwestern corner of Oregon along the California line. The eastern boundary, with its length of ninety miles, follows the great Cascade Range, over snowclad peaks 9,000 feet high. The southern boundary follows the crests of the Siskiyou Mountains, which are about 4,500 feet high. The county has an area of 3,000 square miles--about half as large as Massachusetts--and across the northern end flows Rogue River, a wild and turbulent stream, rising among the melting snows of the Cascade Range, carrying water enough to irrigate an empire and power enough to turn all the wheels on the Pacific Coast. It is fed by many beautiful creeks and rivulets of cold, pure water, which never fail. The soil of Rogue River Valley is alluvial, much of it being of black vegetable mold, and the landscape shows gentle slopes, rolling uplands, wide level benches and groves of trees skirting the foothills. The soil is adapted to all crops, but fruit is the most profitable, the apples and pears particularly being of a quality that commands the prices I have named.
    The town of Medford, which is the commercial center of the Rogue River Valley and the fruit district, has a population of about 5,500, having doubled in five years, and Jackson County has about 25,000 people. Medford is located on the main line of the Southern Pacific railroad, 331 miles south of Portland and 442 miles north of San Francisco, at an altitude of 1,374 feet. It is a well built, well kept place, with up-to-date shops, paved streets, concrete sidewalks, attractive homes and numerous schools and churches. The town was laid out in 1872 by a man named Broback, who came up here from California, bought 169 acres of land, and when the railway came along he persuaded the company to build him a station and call it Medford. [Broback moved to Jackson County--from Lake County--in 1882. Medford was platted in 1883.] There was a mining camp, one of the oldest in Oregon, called Jacksonville, five miles westward, which at one time was famous. Several millions of dollars of gold have been taken out there, and it is producing a little every year still. Medford became the railway station for the miners, and at once got a good business.
    Rogue River Valley was one of the earliest of the mining districts on the Pacific Coast after the excitement of 1849 and at one time it was thronged with miners. It is claimed that it has yielded $25,000,000 of gold. There are various versions to account for the name.Some of the old settlers say that it is due to the performances of a Mexican desperado named Joaquin Murietta, who used to steal horses and cattle and hold up stages in early times; others declare that the eccentricities of the river are so roguish that it deserves the name. [It was named after the Indians.]
    The first people who followed Broback here raised stock and then plowed the land and sowed wheat. Several farmers set out fruit trees around their houses, which produced abundantly, but there was no market except in the mining camps, and the apples and pears were practically worthless, except for home consumption, until the railway came. Their reputation gradually extended to San Francisco, Portland and different mining camps, and shipments grew every year until 1885, when J. H. Stewart of Quincy, Ill., came out here and became the pioneer of the Rogue River fruit trade in a commercial way. He had been brought up among orchards, and not only had considerable experience, but a genius for fruit growing. He was president of the Illinois state board of horticulture for several years. He was also a member of the Illinois state senate.
    Mr. Stewart came out here accidentally, and in looking over the ground immediately recognized the superior quality of the fruit and saw the possibilities. He bought a quarter section of land, set out 140 acres of pear and apple trees, and recommended everybody to go into the business. The development was slow for the first ten years, only a few carloads being shipped to San Francisco, Portland and other markets on the Pacific Coast, but occasionally a box of apples or pears was sent to Australia or China, and a few found their way across the mountains to Chicago, New York and Boston.
    The business did not assume anything like its present importance until five or six years ago, but now there are 45,000 acres in apples and pears, averaging seventy pear trees and 50 apple trees to the acre. In the immediate vicinity of Medford. There are at least 100,000 unoccupied acres suitable for fruit growing in the Rogue River Valley, and they are being taken up at the rate of 12,000 acres
a year.
    The planting of apples and pears is about even, and the two fruits pay equally well. Apples are a more certain crop; the pear trees yield larger quantities, and the fruit sells for high prices.
    There are many large orchards, much larger than are found in any other section of the state, but most of the farmers limit themselves to forty acres, which is "a one-man orchard," as the saying goes. That is, one man can cultivate forty acres of fruit without assistance, except in picking time, but if he attempts more than that he is compelled to hire help, and then his troubles begin. Labor is very scarce, uncertain and unreliable; wages are very high, and if the owner's house is small, it is usually inconvenient to furnish bed and board for a hired man. The advice of experienced fruit growers is either to keep within forty acres, or else go into the business on a large scale, sufficient to justify the employment of a gang of men and the maintenance of a large plant.
    The largest orchard in the Rogue River Valley, and I am told that it is the largest in the Northwest, belongs to the Western Oregon Orchard Company, with offices at 59 Dearborn Street, Chicago, and is situated four miles from Medford. The company owns 1,700 acres, and has 1,120 acres planted in apple and pear trees, which are cultivated according to the highest scientific methods. This is a stock company, and I understand it has orchards elsewhere.
    Mr. Walter Burrell, a merchant of Portland, has 500 acres of trees; the "401 Orchard Company" of San Francisco has 450 acres; Mr. F. H. Hopkins of Portland has 260 acres; the Bear Creek Orchard Company, belonging to Colorado and local people, has 200 acres; the Sun Crest orchard, owned by Dr. F. C. Page, has 140 acres in Newtown, Spitzenberg and Jonathan apples, and 60 acres in pears.
    The Snowy Butte orchard has 300 acres; Mr. William Hart Hamilton has recently purchased 1,160 acres, and is planting 500 acres to pears this season. The Del Rio Company has 730 acres lying along the track of the Southern Pacific railway, and is planting 600 acres to pears.
    Two years ago Mrs. Potter Palmer of Chicago purchased 100 acres of three-year-old pear trees, paying $370 an acre. Honoré Palmer, who came here to visit his friend, F. H. Hopkins, one of the most successful husbandmen in the neighborhood, caught the pear fever, and persuaded his mother to come out. She proved an easy victim to the fascination of the country, and has since bought l,400 acres of new land, for which she paid $35,000, and has already cleared 400 acres,
which will be planted to trees during the coming winter.
    Several other Chicago people have orchards. Mrs. Streator, the widow of Dr. Streator, has sixty acres; Mr. Boudinot Connor has two hundred acres; Conro Fiero has sixty acres, and Mr. Vilas, a nephew of the late senator from Wisconsin, has fifty acres. There are also a large number of Minneapolis and St. Paul people.
    New land costs from $150 to $250 an acre; it costs an average of $25 an acre to put the soil in order and set out the trees, and an average of $10 an acre for five years to carry it to the bearing stage. Then the cost of producing the crop depends upon the ability to obtain pickers when the fruit is ripe. Pickers are scarce, and they demand $1.75 a day, boarding themselves, or $1.25 a day when they are boarded.
    Mr. John D. Olwell, one of the most experienced apple and pear growers, tells me that the cost of production will average 60 cents a box; the freight on apples to New York is 50 cents a box, or $1 a hundred pounds; on pears it is $1.40 per hundred, with corresponding rates to Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis and Missouri River points.
    Pears run from 110 to 155 to the box, about 500 boxes to the car. Apples run from 120 to 130 to the box, and will, bring an average of $2.25 a box through the season, here on the cars. The Newtown Pippins are nearly all shipped to England, and sold at auction upon arrival there. The Spitzenbergs are nearly all sold in New York.
    The ground is prepared by plowing and cultivating, and nursery stock is set out during the winter season and cultivated regularly and closely. Corn, watermelons and strawberries may be planted between the rows, which will pay expenses until the trees begin to bear, the fifth year. Each year the trees must be pruned and shaped up, and after the fifth year, when they begin to bear, they are sprayed regularly to kill the San Jose scale and other parasites.
    Medford is not dependent upon one industry, however. Timber, cattle, sheep and mining contribute to its wealth and prosperity, and a railway is now being built to the headwaters of the Rogue River, where is one of the largest stands of timber in the country.
Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 1, 1909, page 11


    While all Oregon has heard of the community cooperative plan of the Harriman lines, it is pertinent to state for the benefit of those who are not conversant with this plan of community development that it is an arrangement with communities on the Harriman lines whereby the burden of the publicity work is lifted from the shoulders of the community and placed upon experts employed by the Southern Pacific Company lines in Oregon; the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, or the Oregon Short Line, as the case may be.
    The plan consists of twenty features, one of which is the publication of literature. Other features are advertising through tried mediums, newspapers, magazines, etc.; exhibition of products, distribution of literature, and many other forms of publicity which experience has demonstrated to be of value. The results obtained through this plan have been nothing short of phenomenal. The colonist movement to Oregon was 100 percent greater during the months of March and April, 1909, than it was during the preceding season. It is not too much to say that the increased travel can be attributed largely to the community plan, inasmuch as practically the entire state of Oregon has adopted this method of publicity and development.
    The literature issued under this plan has struck a new note in community publicity, a fact which is recognized by some of the strong educational institutions throughout the country. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, is using the booklets on Oregon as textbooks in one of its departments. It is generally admitted that this plan has brought to Oregon the highest grade and the largest amount of literature that has been published during the past year by any state in the Union. It has demonstrated to communities the necessity and advisability of high-grade publicity and it has been the indirect means of bringing about in the communities themselves a larger amount of civic pride and producing, consequently, some important civic improvements. The publication of this immense amount of literature has not only stimulated travel to Oregon and to other sections which have adopted the plan, but it has brought the communities themselves to a realization of their own opportunities and possibilities. Publicity has increased land values in every community in Oregon, without exception, and it has stirred the state to a more united effort to reach out for greater attainments in the future.
    The communities which have adopted the community cooperative plan of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company and the Southern Pacific Company lines in Oregon, as executed by the Sunset Homeseekers Bureau, are as follows:
    Medford, Oregon, was the first to adopt this plan, and has followed this method of publicity for four years in succession, beginning with 1907. The first booklet issued for Medford consisted of 20,000 copies; the booklet issued for 1908 consisted of 35,000 copies; the booklet issued for 1909 consisted of 63,500 copies, and the booklet for 1910 will consist of at least 50,000 copies. Work on this booklet is now under way. The total number of copies of the leading booklet issued for Medford, Oregon, under this plan, will aggregate more than 165,000 copies. This is for what is known as the "Community Book" proper, and does not include other forms of literature which have been published for Medford under this plan and which will aggregate 140,000 copies. The total will reach over 305,000 copies.
    Ashland, Oregon, has adopted this plan for two years in succession, and of the community booklets which have been issued for Ashland 45,000 copies have been published. Seventy-five thousand copies of other kinds of literature have been issued for Ashland.
    Grants Pass, Oregon, has adopted the plan two years in succession, and has secured community booklets aggregating 55,000 copies. Seventy-five thousand copies of other literature have been issued for Grants Pass.
    Central Point, Oregon, has just adopted the community plan with its various features, and will have issued for it four kinds of literature aggregating 05,000 copies. This includes what is known as the community booklet, the conductor booklet, the colonist folder and a postal folder. This literature is designed to meet entirely different requirements and is consequently of varying grades. The community plan in the past included three grades of literature, namely, the community booklet, the colonist folder, and the conductor booklet. The postal folder has just been added. It is designed to keep the business men of a community as thoroughly in touch as possible with the work that the commercial organization of the community is doing. These folders are sent out with letters written by business men of the community to their regular correspondents, and in addition to the write-up of the community's attractions this folder contains a return postal card, one side of which is addressed to the secretary of the commercial organization, while on the other side is a request asking for more detailed information on subjects enumerated, and which is to be checked by the person receiving the card. The larger or community booklet can then be sent by the Commercial Club when requested by the recipient of this postal card folder, and a definite and valuable list of inquirers can thus be secured.
    Roseburg, Oregon, adopted this plan once and has had issued for it 45,000 copies of the community booklet, and 4.5,000 copies of other literature.
    Oakland. Oregon, has published through this plan 10,000 copies of the community booklet. and 25,000 copies of other literature.
Excerpt, Better Fruit, November 1909, pages 69-73




    It is a somewhat significant fact that the Rogue River Valley in Oregon, where the writer has resided for the past twenty-six years, owes its present position in the world's fruit trade largely to the good judgment and horticultural knowledge of a veteran in horticulture from the State of Illinois. There is no better illustration than his experience furnishes that methods of culture and selection of varieties must conform to local conditions. From the day when Hon. J. H. Stewart, now deceased, first saw upon the banquet tables of the Pioneer Association, assembled in annual reunion at Jacksonville, Oregon, a finer display of prime apples than he had ever seen at a state fair in the Mississippi Valley, he became a staunch advocate of commercial fruit culture in southern Oregon. Urging upon his neighbors in the [middle] eighties, before as yet the transportation was provided, the necessity of preparing to supply the Eastern demand for such choice fruit, he himself planted more than one hundred acres of apples and pears, fortunately including a good proportion of yellow Newtown pippins and Bartlett pears. Unfortunately, as usually happens when horticulture is in the experimental stage in a new district, many varieties were set which later proved not to be good commercial kinds, although yielding good crops. At that time there were many small family orchards scattered through the valley, affording a demonstration of what varieties were best adapted to the soil and conditions. A favorite among the early settlers, and found everywhere throughout the valley, was the Esopus Spitzenberg. Prior to the advent of the railroad, there were practically no fruit pests. The codling moth did not make its appearance until about 1890, closely followed by the San Jose scale. With the scale, those thrifty old family orchards became a matter of history. No effort was made to save them, and for a time even the commercial orchards seemed to be doomed. When the first salt-lime-and-sulphur formula was introduced, even applied with the crude man-power sprayers then on the market, it was apparent that science had triumphed over the pest. When gasoline power was used, and the first gasoline engine used for this purpose was equipped and used in a Rogue River apple orchard, very effective work was done in spraying, and each year has seen an advance in methods and a wonderful growth in acreage of orchards in the valley, until today there are no less than fifty thousand acres of apples and pears planted and approaching maturity in the valley.
    Today the major portion of the apple trees planted each year in this district are of the yellow Newtown and Spitzenberg varieties. Since the first shipments were made directly from the grower to the distributing firms in London, the English trade has shown a decided preference for the Newtowns from this valley, and since the year 1900, when the grower first came in direct touch with the market here, the price has been uniformly good, car consignments frequently averaging three dollars per fifty-pound box, free on cars at shipping station. Until within three years there was the same effort made by the grower to excel in size of individual Newtown Pippins that still distinguishes the demands of the American red apple trade. It became evident, however, that the more conservative Englishman finds the four-tier, or 128 to the box, size more to his liking than the abnormally large apples, and that is the type most sought for at present. The tree is hardy, vigorous, and very productive in this section, and the smaller sizes being most in demand, the labor and expense of thinning the fruit of this variety is reduced to the minimum. The tree is allowed to bear to the limit, and in case of an unusually dry summer, if water is available, two moderate irrigatings are given the trees. Irrigation is not here considered essential, and yet all concede that it adds immensely to the yield of all apple trees, especially those over fifteen years of age. It will be resorted to much more in future than in the past, for as yet the bulk of the orchards in the valley are young.
    Oregon prides herself especially upon her "red" apples. And yet the best of all the red apples, and the one best adapted to Oregon conditions, the Spitzenberg, has not proven nearly so profitable as the Newtown in the orchards of southern Oregon. Nor can it adapt itself so well to all soils, ranging from the volcanic ash to the black adobe, in all of which the Newtown thrives. When the conditions of soil are just right for the Spitzenberg, however, that blend of alluvium or sediment soil with the wash from the foothills, on which was produced the car lot of Spitzenbergs which in November last won the capital prize at the Spokane apple show, no other district on earth can surpass the Rogue River Valley in its production. The orchard which this year won for its owner the crown of an "Apple King" has produced car after car of just as fine apples in the past, but awaited the sagacity of the man who knows and the man who had the enterprise to enter the contest to win plaudits from ocean to ocean. Through the medium of the writer, the present owners purchased this orchard in 1906, men entirely without experience in horticulture, and it is sufficient to say that they have deserved all the success they have obtained in winning this world's prize, for they have applied good, hard business sense to the management of their orchard, and there is no better in the best district in the Northwest.
    The close student of the markets knows that in the immediate future other varieties of apples will be planted largely in the Rogue River Valley, although today even the residents find it difficult to procure the Rome Beauties, the White Winter Pearmains, Yellow Bellefleurs, Jonathans and Ortley Pippins, which once filled their cellars for winter supply. Of these, the Rome Beauty and the Ortley will unquestionably be planted in a commercial way, on account of their uniformly high quality and productiveness. The Jonathan and the Stayman Winesap will also divide honors with the Spitzenberg for both are productive, very precocious in bearing, and much hardier than the Spitz. It is even predicted that in certain locations in a few years blocks of Ben Davis will be set, for that old standby is holding its own in productiveness, and with all its inferior quality, there are orchards in the Rogue River Valley of this fruit which are almost as good yielders in dollars as the choicer fruits.
    In setting an apple orchard in this valley it is the uniform practice to use yearling nursery stock, and many prefer the medium sizes to the overgrown stock which was once in greatest demand. It is preferable to set on land which has been in cultivation for some years, and many of the most flourishing .young orchards are growing on land which had been "farmed to death" in the days of wheat production. While the apple itself is a shallow-rooted tree, it finds the elements it wants in the subsoil below the level robbed in grain culture through former years. Thorough preparation of the soil, often with subsoiling at least the tree row, is practiced and after setting the land between the rows of trees is either cultivated with spring-tooth harrows, extension tools and weed cutters, or planted to corn, potatoes or other hoed crops, and at times set to berries. Berries, however, require irrigation to be successfully handled, and our growers do not, as a rule, approve of irrigation for young trees, at least not until they have grown for some years with surface cultivation. The idea is that the roots of the young trees will extend further into the subsoil without irrigation, which may or may not be the case. Corn is the great "expense crop" grown between young trees in this valley. Other varieties come into bearing younger, but if an expense crop is produced on Newtown or Spitzenberg trees the sixth year in this valley, the grower is well satisfied. Many are now resorting to peach tree fillers, to expedite returns from the orchard, and this course is now considered good management, as conditions for 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 tree-row one 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 orchardist 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 efficacious, 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 susceptible to the pear blight, but with ordinary caution it is handled successfully.
    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 success. There are probably two thirds of the men engaged in horticulture in the Rogue River Valley who have retired from active business or professional 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 against 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 Medford, 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 possibility of thus saving the crop every year. This work was really without the province of the pathologist, but at the solicitation of our horticulturists, and with the consent of the weather bureau officials. Mr. O'Gara very accommodatingly placed his knowledge at the disposal of the growers.
    The matter of standardizing the pack of the valley has received much attention during the past year, and through the different associations of growers, it is a certainty that within another year this valley will be distinguished by as uniform pack and thorough business marketing of our product as now characterize any other district. Each year it becomes more apparent that quality and uniformity alone will bring the largest returns. (Applause.)
Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Fruit-Growers' Convention of the State of California, Watsonville, December 7, 8, 9 and 10, 1909, State Printing Office, page 21


Medford Mail Tribune, December 2, 1909, page 1


    The Snowy Butte orchard, the property of the Olwells, was sold by Fred Hopkins for $168,000.
    Bear Creek orchards, in Southern Oregon near Medford, owned by Hunt Lewis, were recently sold for $160,000.
    The biggest orchard transaction ever occurring in the history of the business, so far as we know, is the sale of the Burrell orchard of 600 acres near Medford, Oregon, which we understand was sold to H. J. Neeley and associates for $500,000. When capital is invested to the extent of half a million it is certainly very significant that orchards are considered gilt-edge investments.
    C. E. Whisler, one of the owners of the Bear Creek orchard, has been sent by his district to Washington, D. C, to oppose the Lafean bill. Fruit growers of Southern Oregon were wise in their selection, because no more able representative can be found in the Northwest to represent the apple industry.
    J. A. Westerlund, president of the Western Orchard Company, of Southern Oregon, says it now contains 1,760 acres, 1,040 acres being planted to apples and pears. This is one of the largest orchard tracts in the valley.
"Miscellaneous News Items of the Northwest," Better Fruit, April 1910, page 72


    Alfalfa is still grown in the Rogue River Valley, but the meadows are being rapidly replaced by pear and apple orchards. Last year 15,000 acres were set out to orchards in the portion of the Rogue River Valley extending from Ashland south to where the valley pinches 12 miles below Medford before again widening out into the Grants Pass district.
    In this 25-mile length of valley there are now 65,000 acres set in orchards, and from this area the fame of Rogue River fruit has been given by only 2500 acres of bearing trees. Next year will probably see more than 15,000 acres additional converted into orchard lands. In the season of 1909 this portion of the Rogue River Valley shipped 500 carloads of fruit, valued at $1000 a car. It is estimated that this year 1000 carloads will be shipped, next year 2000 carloads, and the following year 3000 carloads.
    In the new orchards, pears are coming more and more into favor, for as a producer of fancy pears Rogue River prides itself that it never can be beat. In apple growing it has strong competitors in the Hood River, Wenatchee and other countries. Up to this year the percentage of new orchards set to pear trees was about 50. This year it is about 65 percent.
R. G. Callvert, "Orchards Replace Great Range Area," Oregonian, Portland, May 23, 1910, page 5




    Products of the Rogue River Valley through 10 counties will be furnished the Chamber of Commerce by the Medford, Or., Commercial Club. M. Mosessohn, assistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, returned yesterday from the Southern Oregon city and announced the success of his mission in signing Medford for an exhibit space.
    "Medford is a wonderful little city," he said. "It is one of the most cosmopolitan towns I ever saw. They are building and boosting all the time. Recently $30,000 was raised for the Crater Lake road. They will come to Portland soon to secure our help in the matter of raising funds.
    "The Rogue River Valley is becoming the world's greatest pear district. They have almost quit raising apples. The pears are already sold at $10.80 a box, which is more profitable than apple-raising. They will send a large exhibit to the Chicago dry farming exposition next month. Products from the ranches of Mrs. Potter Palmer and the Czar of Russia will be among those sent.
    "Medford is now paving 11 miles of her streets and in other civic  improvements is forging rapidly to the front."
Morning Oregonian, Portland, June 3, 1910, page 16


    Owing to the open winters in the Rogue River Valley, the winter season is very favorable to work in the orchard. Planting and pruning can be done at almost any time from November to May. This is especially true on the granitic soils around Ashland. It may rain in the night or morning, and by the time one is ready to go to work he can take off his coat, even though it be winter, and find his pruning shears, or his spade. The drainage is good--the surface dries quickly and there is no mud.
    There is no severe winter cold, and the planting of peach trees may be made in November or December, and the February or March planting does equally well. Plantings made at such times make a good growth early in the season, root deeply and the wood matures well. Young trees planted last fall or this spring have made a fine growth, with strong wood.
    When the trees are set out they are headed back to about twenty inches. A shield is placed around the trees (the blue layer paper used in apple packing makes a good shield). When the growth starts the lower buds are pinched off, leaving three or five to grow. When these branches have attained the desired length the terminal bud is pinched, checking the growth, causing thickening of the branch and ripening of the wood. This must not be done too early, else branches will start out too freely and grow to too great a length. Pinching back undesirable growth is much better than pruning it away next season, for while much growth will be cut away every year, yet the process of pinching saves much waste, and the tree gains correspondingly. This applies especially to the first and second years' growth. The third year and after, an attempt is made to secure a "balance" between the new growth and the bearing fruit, so that there is neither an overgrowth, nor an overbearing.
    Some summer pruning is practiced in connection with the thinning and picking. The orchardist always carries his small pruning shears, and uses it too. We know the old rule, "Prune when the knife is sharp."
    Methods in pruning have changed the past few years. In old orchards the growth is high, with long, bare limbs. These, however, are being replaced by young trees, low-headed and pruned to bring the crop near the ground.
    Clean culture is the rule here. Cultivation is thorough and is continued into midsummer, ceasing about August 1. Harrowing with the spring tooth and straight tooth harrow is the general practice. Some discs are used, especially in the black soils. Cultivation is very thorough, close to the trees and very frequent. Very few orchards are irrigated.
    Spraying the peach trees for both scale and blight is receiving the attention of the inspectors and orchardists. This season, perhaps for the first, the spraying has been very effectively done. In the fall, after the crop is off and before the rains begin, a good, thorough spraying with the bordeaux is made. We do not wait until the leaves fall, but ensure a thorough spray in good season. In the after part of the winter or early spring a spray with the lime-sulfur is made. Where the application is made about the time the buds swell, one spray is sufficient, but some orchardists are now spraying twice with the lime-sulfur, once in the dormant season with the full strength, and again as the buds are ready to break. The inspector is recommending the spraying at the time the buds are ready to burst, as catching the twig borer, if there be any, and also as being more effective against scale. Supervision of this work is made through the county and local inspectors, and is resulting in clean orchards.
    This spring some experiments were made applying both the bordeaux and the lime-sulfur, and in one or two orchards application was made with the self-boiled lime-sulfur. These experiments were conducted for the purpose of determining what could be done in the cases where the blight was bad. At the date of the preparation of this article, the results cannot be stated, though we are watching with considerable interest to see the effects of these experiments.
    After the danger of frost is past, which is usually by the 10th of May, the work of thinning the peaches begins. Effort is made to thin the fruit so as to produce what we call a seventy-five pack, that is, large enough to run seventy-five peaches per box.
    It is only the expert orchardist who is able to reduce the amount of fruit at the
first thinning to proper proportions. The inexperienced man will probably have to go over his orchard the second and even the third time, and sometimes absolutely refuses to have his fruit "thrown away," as he calls it. It is true, however, that the fruit must be thinned to probably a distance of four inches on the branch, depending of course upon the way the tree is pruned, the general strength of the tree and the general weather conditions. The Ashland Fruit and Produce Association, which ships practically all of the output of the Ashland district, has this year eliminated the small peach from their shipments.
    Our successful orchardists have practically lived in their orchards. Successful men are the ones who like their work, and while they are following the proven methods in orchard culture, they are also experimenting more or less to discover improved methods.
    We are quite free from pests and the work is both pleasant, owing to weather conditions, and profitable, owing to the superior qualities of the peach produced.
Better Fruit, August 1910, pages 27-28


    ASHLAND (Ore.), Sept. 1.--One sale of the Waite holdings of 8000 acres near this city to the Ashland Suburban Orchards syndicate for the consideration of over $4000,000 was announced today. This is the largest real estate transaction in the history of Jackson County.
    The land is on the north slope of Bear Creek valley, and the Waite interests have had a corps of engineers in the field for some time surveying an irrigation project for this property with the intention of subdividing and selling it in small tracts. The Ashland Suburban Orchards syndicate is a company of Chicago and Portland capitalists headed by J. N. A. Spence of Chicago. The syndicate will carry out the irrigation project and subdivide the tract in ten- and twenty-acre lots and sell them to orchardists.
    This transaction is of great importance to Ashland and Jackson County, and has given much encouragement to all classes. The syndicate is reported to have abundance of capital to carry on its plans of irrigation and colonization. The success of this enterprise means that other large tracts of land in this county will be subdivided.
Sacramento Daily Union, September 2, 1910, page 9


    This question of the danger of overproduction of the apple is the one asked more often than any other at the office of the State Board of Horticulture. Those who come to the Pacific Northwest with the intention of engaging in the apple industry hear of so many apple-planting projects of apparently great dimensions that they become alarmed lest when these projected orchards all come into bearing the supply of apples will far exceed the demand. There are two common causes of an erroneous belief in the danger of an early overproduction of apples. One of these is the assumption that the conditions in the matter of apple planting which exist west of the Rocky Mountains prevail throughout the United States, and the other is that the extensive planting of apple orchards is not of itself a sure indication of an increase of production proportioned to the increase in the area of orchards. Even men of high intelligence have been led into error by the assumption that this is the case. J. H. Stewart, the man who founded the modern commercial apple growing industry in Oregon, made this mistake. He was a skilled orchardist before he came to Oregon and was familiar with the condition of the apple producing industry on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. The orchard which he established near Medford is still one of the finest in Oregon, or in the world. Yet this skilled orchardist and successful business man was convinced in 1892 that we were then on the verge of an overproduction of apples. In a paper which he read before a farmers' institute held in Medford in 1892 he said: "The apple--in this county alone perhaps 50,000 trees are growing. When these trees all come into bearing, say, ten years, where will we market all this crop of apples? The 50,000 trees in the Rogue River Valley will produce 250,000 bushels. This amount is but a drop in the bucket compared with the amount produced in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. Now, where are we to find a market for all these apples? When this time of overproduction does arrive where will some of us who have been planting large orchards find ourselves?"
    Seventeen years have elapsed. The price of apples in the Rogue River Valley has never been lower than it was when Mr. Stewart read his paper. It has averaged much higher since then and the tendency of the price has been up--not down. The Rogue River Valley long ago passed the point of producing 250,000 bushels of apples in one year. Mr. Stewart's error lay in thinking that everybody in Oregon, Washington and Northern California who was planting apple trees would give them the same constant and thorough care that was given by the group of thorough orchardists in the Rogue River Valley who have made the industry a great success there. At the time he read his paper there were not less than 1,800,000 young apple trees growing in Oregon alone. Yet Oregon produces less apples now than it did then, although of much higher average quality and of greater aggregate value per year. The crop now is grown on a very small fraction of the young trees then in the state, and in a few localities--the Rogue River and Hood River Valleys, the Grand Ronde, and a few other places where apple raising was made a specialty and proper care was taken of the trees and orchards. The great mass of those young trees have never counted in supplying apples for market, because they have not received that care which an apple tree must have to enable it to produce fruit for market.
H. N. Williamson, "Apple Market and Danger of Overproduction," Better Fruit, November 1910, page 24


Advertisement, Chicago Tribune, November 26, 1910, page 22




    June is the month when careful inspection should be made of the young apple and pear trees to see that the newly hatched larvae of the borer beetle are headed off. While some orchardists encase the trunks of the young trees with wrappers of one kind or another, which extend a couple of inches into the soil, or paint the trunks with whitewash in which a rather strong solution of carbolic acid has been added, these precautions should not be allowed to take the place of an individual tree inspection. This is best done by keeping all grass and weeds hoed away from the trunk of the tree, getting down on all fours and carefully scraping the bark for a couple of inches below the surface of the ground with a sharp knife, a curved-bladed pruning knife being preferable. The presence of the newly hatched borers will be indicated by a drop of discolored sap exuding from the bark or a tiny bit of brown wood dust. If the borers have been in the tree a year or more this brown excreta will be considerable, the adjacent bark giving a hollow sound when scraped with the knife. This dead bark should be carefully pared away and the borer or borers located, for sometimes four or five will be eating the life out of the same tree. Borers of the preceding year's hatch usually work down and sideways from the point of entrance, while those which have been in the tree two seasons are deeply bedded in the wood and are usually working up preparatory to their change to the beetle stage and emergence from the tree in this form sometime in June. While a pliable wire is good for reaching these pests, a little peeled twig will answer the purpose nicely, the use of it often preventing a serious cutting of the bark and tree. When the borers have been cleaned out the wounds should be packed tight with moist soil, so as to hasten the healing process. There is no other single pest which does as much primary damage to fruit trees as borers, yet there is no orchard enemy which the novice seems to know so little about.
    The present unexampled solicitude of the fruit jobbers' trust for the financial welfare of the independent fruit growers is entirely too belated to be credited with any large degree of philanthropy or altruism. Time was--and that but a short time ago--when all growers were independent--that is, each operated individually, and was easy picking for the commission sharks, who saw that their victims got just enough returns for their produce to keep soul and body together, and sometimes not that much. The city buyers were banded together to quote a price for a given shipment of produce and then notify all members of the clique what that price was, and the victim could wait until he got black in the face, but he would get no better offer. In time growers woke up and realized how they had been hoodwinked and swindled. They are now organized, and organized effectively enough so that they are beginning to get fairly decent treatment from those who formerly plundered them at will. Some dissatisfaction has been felt by members of some growers' associations with prices received, and these are being enticed away from the organization by temporary decent treatment by the commission men and jobbers, but it is only for the purpose of disrupting these cooperative marketing organizations, when the old tactics can be counted on to put into play; hence when the fruit jobbers' trust displays undue kindness toward the independents it is safe to assume there is an ulterior motive behind it. There is a nigger in the woodpile.
    When danger of frost is past and it is apparent that the trees have set more fruit than their size would seem to indicate that it will be possible for them to bring to a good-sized maturity, hand thinning should be resorted to. This will not only reduce the number, but will at the same time improve both the size and quality of the fruit remaining, the total weight or volume of fruit not being reduced by the process, but simply being confined beneath fewer skins. The thinning in most of the western orchard districts is done when the apples are about the size of a shelled walnut, and the practice is to leave no fruit on the trees closer than six inches. The same rule holds for pears, while for smaller fruits, such as peaches and apricots, the distance at which the fruit is left apart is about four inches, varying somewhat upon the variety and size which it usually attains. If the thinning is carefully done much defective fruit may be eliminated in the process, thus reducing the number of culls which will have to be handled at harvest time.
F. E. Trigg, Central Point, "Farm, Orchard and Garden," The Bremen Enquirer, Bremen, Indiana, June 16, 1911, page 3




    F. H. Page, of the firm of Page & Sons, Portland, was a visitor in Medford yesterday, after having spent several weeks' vacation on the fishing grounds of the Klamath country. Mr. Page has the distinction of being the first [fruit] shipper from the Rogue River Valley [H. E. Battin & Co. preceded Page & Sons.], and his reminiscences of old times are replete with interest. The first car of pears came from the old Stewart orchard, now the famous Burrell property. This was in 1889 or 1890, Mr. Page is not certain which. [It was probably 1891, but fruit was shipped by the carload within the Rogue Valley in 1884, the year the railroad arrived. Fruit was shipped out of the valley by the carload in 1886.] In order to make the pack worthy of the quality of the fruit, which was destined to astonish the New York and other markets and create a standard which has never been equaled by any other fruit section, Mr. Page brought a force of ten or twelve people from Portland to sort and pack the pears, wrap and box them in fancy style, and personally supervised the work. The result was so satisfactory that the banner price of 80 cents per box gross was paid to the grower.
    In 1885 Mr. Page built a warehouse at Ashland for the purpose of drying peaches, as well as shipping them green, and maintained the establishment for nearly a quarter of a century. The apple and pear industry of the Rogue River Valley was in its infancy at the time, and for years secondary to the peach business. In 1886 and 1887 Newtowns and Spitzenberg apples were first shipped, and even with the fancy style of the pack did not realize to exceed 65 to 75 cents per box to the grower. This was the foundation of the fruit traffic in the valley, and the great reputation which was made by the pears and apples soon attracted attention from all commission men in the great markets of the East. Nothing but the very best fruit was packed, Mr. Page stating that thousands of boxes of pears and apples were annually thrown away, and yet worthy of being considered first-class stuff in the desire to confine strictly to fancy grades.
    Twenty-five years ago there was no market for high-grade fruit outside of New York City. The coast cities got their supply from local sources, and even with the efforts which the Southern Pacific made to aid the industry in the Rogue River Valley the Portland market consumed practically nothing, and San Francisco and other California cities were glutted with apples from Santa Clara Valley.
    One of the most interesting facts of these pioneer days was the manner in which transportation facilities were afforded. The first car of pears from Medford was loaded in an ordinary box car, hauled to Portland and transferred there into a refrigerator. This astonishing condition continued until 1901, and in that year 63 cars were handled in that crude way. The time from Medford to Chicago was from 16 to 20 days, and three to four weeks to New York City. Peaches were treated the same, as far as the shipment to Portland was concerned, and the fact that no damage resulted is the strongest endorsement of the superior quality of the fruit. It took several years to properly establish local brands in the East. It is probably well known in Medford today that the average net price which the valley growers received for their apples as late as 1903 was only $1.17 per box, and 90¢ for pears. Since that time prices have gone skyward, the whole country knows of the valley, and there is now scarcely any limit to the expansion which is so rapidly taking place.
    Mr. Page was also instrumental in bringing some of the most prominent people into the valley. He negotiated the sale of the Stewart orchard to Captain Voorhies and of the Weeks & Orr orchard, now the Bear Creek tract, to Hunt Lewis. Mr. Page is an old-time friend of Mr. Malboeuf, who was in the pioneer days of the fruit industry here connected with the Southern Pacific Company, and the efforts made in those days to get freight rates, cars and other assistance from the railroad was reviewed by them with keen pleasure. To Mr. Malboeuf Mr. Page unhesitatingly pronounced the Rogue River Valley as having a wonderful future, its fruits of the very best quality produced in the world, and Medford a city which has not only built up far beyond his most ardent expectations, but with the certain probability of its having 25,000 people in a few years. He believes that what will keep the valley to the front is the present careful methods and application of the most modern rules of horticultural skill, a powerful fruit growers' union, and a continued and determined effort on the part of the Commercial Club to keep up its splendid work of the past. Mr. Page left for Portland Monday evening.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 27, 1910, page 4


Bought several hundred apple and pear trees and set out an orchard. His friends expostulated with him, showing him that it was a grain country, and a grain country alone, but he had lived in the valley for years, and the arguments were of no avail. Despite the facts that were presented to him why fruit could not be raised in the valley, only a few years later he sold enough fruit from this orchard to have bought all the alfalfa and wheat land that joined it.
    When this fruit was first received in the Eastern markets, the people did not know what or where the Rogue River Valley was, and were backward about buying fruit from an unknown locality. The salesmen could give them little information, for they had only the merest idea as to its location and knew nothing about the valley or its products. For this reason Mr. Stewart (for such was the orchard owner's name) saw that in order to receive a just price for his fruit it must be advertised. This he did in a small way and the people bought "Stewart's Rogue River Apples" and found them delicious, and became interested in the valley that produced such fruit.
    They came, investigated, and found that the land in this orchard was not perceptibly different from any of the other 2,000,000 acres in the valley. They bought small tracts, set them out to fruit and enjoyed immensely the mild summers, without the electrical, hail or wind storms. Then followed the fall rains, but no snow, and during the months of December, January and February it continued to remain the never-changing days of warm rain, interspersed with days of warm sunshine. These days surely had the breath of springtime in them, the robins, blue jays and meadowlarks sang unceasingly, and by the latter part of February many of them had their nests well feathered.
    These people became enthusiastic and wrote to their friends telling of the climatic conditions, the bountiful crops of grain and vegetables and the sturdy fruit trees that had made such growth during the few preceding months. Some of these friends came, and in turn they wrote to their friends, and----
    That was twenty years ago, but the same condition still exists. There is the one peculiar thing about the city of Medford and the valley of the Rogue River: It is the only place that made a record-smashing growth in population without advertising and without mines or oil wells. The country advertised itself by being all and more than the inhabitants claimed it to be, and the newcomer has always been satisfied. But these things are ahead of the story. Mr. Stewart realized so much from his orchard that the other land owners of the valley began planting orchards, and in a few years the valley looked more like a young forest than a valley. The trees, mostly pears, apples, peaches, apricots, plums and cherries, were set by the thousands, but still the friends were writing their Eastern friends. The demand was made for smaller tracts of land, and immediately the larger tracts were either subdivided or sold and then divided, into five- and ten-acre tracts.
    It was during this immigration some five years ago that someone who was very deeply impressed with the valley said, "If only the world knew of this valley and its possibilities." It was with shame that the people thought of the existing conditions they had left in the faraway East, and of the oppressive heat in the summers, the electrical storms that in one short second take away all that it has taken years of hard toil to accumulate, of the cold rains and sleet storms of the fall and the heavy snow storms of the winter months. They remembered now the people who still labored for a bare living under these conditions, and resolved if possible to be of some assistance to their downtrodden brothers. A commercial club was organized with twelve members, and a few three-line advertisements were carried in Eastern papers and magazines. The members "took turns" answering the few letters of inquiry that came at first, then it became too large, and a man was paid $25 per month for as much of his time as was necessary to answer the letters. This method was outgrown in six months, for no one could be procured for that salary to give all their time to the work, and it demanded it. A capable man was next employed at a good salary, but in less than a year's time he was "buried" with work; next two people were employed, and so forth. The membership of the club has grown from twelve to six hundred in five years. Why? Because every new person that arrives in the valley wants to tell their friends what they have found. The acreage planted to orchard has grown from 1,500 to 65,000 in five years. Why? Because some of the friends have listened, come and found it just the same as represented. The city has grown from 3,500 to 9,200 in three years. Why? Because the friends have arrived, gone into business, found that it paid, and written for their friends to come.
    During the year of 1909, 90 percent of the pears and 50 percent of the apples shipped out of the state of Oregon were raised in the Rogue River Valley, and the friends are still telling their friends. The latest of these is

Louis W. Hill, president Great Northern Railway, who said: "We dropped over the mountains into the Rogue River Valley, and found the RICHEST VALLEY IN THE WORLD. I say this advisedly, and after traveling over 100 miles through its length and breadth. I have traveled extensively, and nowhere have I ever found a richer or more beautiful valley.

    It might not be amiss to say that the great Hill system is now building from Medford over the mountains east, and thereby tapping one of the largest belts of standing timber in the world today. This railroad will be built to an eastern connection with other branches of the Hill system, and Medford will be the only city in Oregon outside of Portland with two great transcontinental railroads.
Have recently edited the 1910 number of "Medford and the Rogue River Valley," and it is conceded by experts to be the most beautiful community booklet that has ever been published. This can be procured free if 6 cents is sent to pay the postage on same to your address, and it is easily worth 50 cents per copy.
Advertisement, Better Fruit, August 1910, page 18


    The Rogue River pears are famous the world over for the excellent quality of the fruit and the scientific methods in handling them. All varieties do equally well here; in fact, this is the acknowledged home of the pear. There are, however, only about half a dozen varieties grown commercially--the Bartlett, Comice, Anjou, Bosc, Howell and Winter Nelis. Each of these varieties have their good qualities, and it is often a disputed question among growers as to which variety brings the best returns. While the writer has handled hundreds of cars of each of these varieties, he is not prepared to say just which variety has made the best record. All have made big money for the grower. We have seen the Comice sell in the markets for five dollars per half box. Again, we have seen the Anjou do equally as well. The Bartlett has made its record of four or five dollars per box, and when we take into consideration the wonderful productiveness of this pear we are constrained to say that they stand at the head of the class.
    While we believe that nowhere in the world do pears grow to such perfection as they do in the Rogue River Valley, yet we realize that the high prices and the splendid reputation our pears have attained is due to a certain extent to the scientific methods employed in growing, picking and packing the fruit.
    The commercial pear orchard receives the very best care possible from the time the young trees are planted until they are producing their golden fruit, which is usually from five to six years. Anyone seeking a position as foreman on one of our pear orchards must, before he is allowed to take charge, convince the owner that he is experienced in orchard work. The trees are too valuable to permit of taking any chances, or making mistakes in pruning or caring for them in anything but a scientific manner.
    The orchardist who grows pears has a decided advantage over the one who grows apples, the young pear trees being much easier cared for from the time they are planted. Insect pests do not attack them as much as they do apple trees. In fact, pear trees are very little trouble or expense to grow; they simply want pruning and reasonable cultivation. Anyone may grow a first-class pear orchard in the Rogue River Valley with what information he may get by attending our horticultural meetings and hearing the methods explained by scientific orchardists and by specialists stationed here to assist the growers.
     Pears never require over two sprayings to keep out the worms. San Jose scale is much easier kept out of pear orchards than the apple orchard. Many people think that because the pear is a very delicate fruit that they are difficult to handle, but we wish to say that after ten years' experience in handling all varieties of fruit we much prefer handling pears to apples. Grading is easier. There are not nearly as large a percent of seconds or culls as there are in any apple crop, and where the grower is prepared to handle fruit in the proper manner, as they are in the Rogue River Valley, pears are handled with scarcely any loss from injury in handling.
    All fruit must be handled carefully, and the grower that does not exercise great care in picking, packing and shipping his fruit cannot expect to be successful. Pears must be picked at the proper time. We may say there is no fixed rule to go by, but the orchardists of the valley are experts in this respect. They are able to determine the very day the fruit will do to come off the tree and yet mature into perfect fruit. This is a very important factor in marketing a pear crop. If picked from the tree too green the fruit will be lacking in sugar and will shrivel and decay without ever getting fit to eat. On the other hand, if allowed to stay on the tree too long, the shipping quality of the fruit is materially injured. The grower must have everything in readiness when the fruit is ready to come off, as there is no time to be lost.
    First, he has all his orchard boxes gone over to see that they are in good condition. Then he gets his wagons that are to haul the fruit from the orchard to the packing house, and from the packing house to the car, in shape, providing each with a set of springs and cover to keep out the hot sun and dust. He then procures enough pickers and packers to pick at least one car of pears every day, and if the crop be large he may load two or more each day. We always like to load each day's pack in the iced car the same day it is packed, and get the fruit cooled out as soon as possible, thus stopping the ripening process. We hope in the near future to have a pre-cooling plant established in the valley. This will extend the marketing period of our pears over three or four weeks, which will mean much to the grower. Bartletts are usually ready to pick from the tenth to fifteenth of August, and the grower who has several varieties is able to keep his crew working from the time Bartletts ripen until the first of October, as the different varieties ripen one after the other, Bartletts first, then the Howell, the Anjou, the Bosc, Comice, and last of all the Winter Nelis, which ripen about the same time, or just before, we commence to pick winter apples. Where a grower has a good-sized orchard, it is very desirable to have several varieties, for this reason.
    The methods of packing fruit have changed quite noticeably in the last few years. In former years we used printed boxes, having the grower's name and the district from which the fruit was grown printed on the end of the box. This has been discontinued, for various reasons, and we now use a plain box made from the best pine lumber, and place on the end of the box a nice lithographed label. The grower's name, the variety and number of pears is neatly stamped on the box, thus giving the buyer a chance to know just what the box contains.
    Pears are packed at less expense than apples, for the reason that no lining or layer paper is used. Grading is not as expensive. Pears must be packed in a nice, neat manner to make a good appearance in the market, as nothing looks worse than a ragged, poorly packed box of pears. We use for most all pears eight by ten duplex wrapping paper, except some of the very largest sizes, which require a larger paper. The paper should always be full large for the pear, and serves to a certain extent to form a cushion for the fruit. The folds of the paper should always come underneath the pear, being perfectly smooth on top. Pears should have a larger swell in the box than apples, and should weigh at least fifty-two pounds.
    In order that the box may look neat and have full weight, the swell must be built in the box as it is packed. Packing schools are conducted each year to give the new beginners a chance to learn the work before they are required to commence packing for shipment. The accompanying cut shows a class of twenty-five taking lessons in one of these schools. Several instructors are employed, as it is necessary to show the pupil, it being very hard to tell anyone how to put up a pack so that they will be able to do the work properly. With a good instructor to show them, it is possible for a new beginner to learn so that they may put up a very good pack in a few days if they really try to learn. We find many who never learn, for the reason that they do not take an interest in the work. The accompanying cut shows a very good commercial pack of pears. They are all four-tier, however. We are sorry that we haven't a cut of a five-tier pack, as that is used mostly and is the most desirable size. The cut shows very well the manner of placing the pears in the box, the diagonal pack being always used. Box No. 1 shows the three, two pack, four and five up the box, and contains ninety pears. A person that does not understand packing will think that the box contains ninety-two pears, but the tiers are not all the same. The first tier put in the box was two pears, put in calyx toward the packer and about equal distance from the sides of the box and from each other. In the next row we place three pears, stem toward the packer, in the three spaces on the sides and in the center. Next two, then three, and so on. You will find this tier has only twenty-two pears in it, while the next tier will have twenty-three, so that we have two tiers of twenty-two and two of twenty-three, or ninety pears. Box No. 2 is three-four pack, four-four up the box, and contains twenty-eight to the tier, or 112 pears. Box No. 3 is three-three pack, four-four up the box, and contains ninety-six pears. This box is packed exactly like the largest size five-tier, and should have been packed five-tier. If packed the same way five-tier it would contain 120 pears. The five-tier packs are three-three pack, four-four up the box, 120 pears; three-three pack, four-five up the box, 135 pears; three-three pack, five-five up the box, 150 pears. We seldom pack smaller than the latter size in the five-tier pack. Six-tier are sometimes packed in winter Nelis, or some of the small varieties, and may pack as many as 200 pears to the box. Some of our fancy pears are packed in the half box, such as the Comice, Anjous and other varieties when they are very large and fine. We believe it pays to put up pears in the half box if the fruit is really fancy. In this pack the work is done almost the same, except we use a fine lace paper to line the sides of the box; a beautiful lithograph top mat is placed over the top of the fruit after the box is packed, the lace lining being folded over so that the center of the mat shows, making a very attractive package. The half box contains from thirty to fifty pears.
Better Fruit, August 1910, pages 20-22


    About six years ago there came into the state of Oregon a young man from Chicago, looking for a suitable place to plant a large commercial orchard. That gentleman was J. A. Westerlund, president of the Western Oregon Orchard Company.
    Someone informed him that the Rogue River Valley, in Southern Oregon, produced first-class apples and pears, and to see it before he decided on a location. The fellow who said this was a knocker on his own country, of course, but his knock proved to be a profitable one for Mr. Westerlund.
    He came this way, he saw, and was soon convinced that the proper place to plant a large commercial orchard was in the Rogue River Valley.
    An option on 400 acres was secured for forty days; then he returned to Chicago, told his brother and associates what the possibilities were, and they soon had their company organized and bought the land.
    As soon as enough capital was secured they started to clear, plow and plant apples and pears and other fruits on the fertile slope of Mount Roxy Ann.
    The Medford people watched this concern with eager eyes. All manner of predictions of failure were made. Even the publisher of the Mail was criticized and reprimanded because he would not expose these impostors. The land was condemned, not fit for anything else but jackrabbits, coyotes, scrub oak--to them nothing else would grow there, save wheat and hogs--and these not to a profit.
    But the publisher thought differently, kept quiet, would not listen to this kind of philosophy. The enterprising men from the East asked no favors or franchises from the people of the Rogue River Valley. They simply worked, and worked hard, grubbing, plowing and planting trees, and said nothing. They didn't parade the streets with a brass band, saying what they intended to do. They simply did things, and did them right. Paid their bills and the men promptly who labored hard to get the old oak stumps off the ground.
     The result is that the Rogue River Valley now can boast of the largest individual orchard on the Pacific Coast, which is known locally as the Westerlund orchards, consisting of 2,100 acres in one solid tract, 400 of which has but recently been added. Over 1,000 acres have been planted and 250 acres more are to be planted this winter.
    What Wm. E. Curtis, in the Chicago Record-Herald says: "The largest orchard in the Rogue River Valley, and I am told that it is the largest in the Northwest, belongs to the Western Oregon Orchards Company, with offices at 59 Dearborn Street, Chicago, and it is situated four miles from Medford. The company owns 2,100 acres and has 1,040 acres planted in apple and pear trees, which are cultivated according to the highest scientific methods."
    The orchard is so planted that it can be practically subdivided in the future, should the company so elect. We predict that in the near future some of the modest and most independent money-making small orchardists will be located in this orchard tract. So successfully has the company managed its affairs that not a dollar of encumbrance burdens the enterprise.
    On the tract is an orchard of about an acre that was planted with two-year-old or three-year-old trees (Bartlett pears and Yellow Newtown apples) when the company purchased the property. Six Bartlett pear trees netted. the sum of twenty-four dollars, and the Newtown apple trees will yield three to five boxes per tree this year.
    Mr. Westerlund took a few samples to the district fair at Ashland, mainly to show what his soil would do. To his great surprise the judges awarded him second prize on the Newtown apples against a dozen other competitors, old orchardists, in the valley.
    At the National Apple Show in Spokane, samples from Mr. Westerlund's orchard will be on exhibition.
    Why could not all our rich foothill lands be converted into fine orchards? They can, if local capital will combine. If it does and is as careful in financing and managing as the Western Oregon Orchard Company have been, success will surely be their reward.
    The publisher of the Morning Mail has been all over this orchard, and he fully believes that not an acre is there in this vast Westerlund orchard which will bring less than $1,000 an acre when it is fully developed and the orchard in bearing.
    New land is being made ready for the plow and the fruit tree every year, and because of this, more value is yearly added to the tract as a whole, and to each individual acre planted to trees is added a value which only time can compute.
    Orchard land any place in this valley is an asset upon which it is difficult to set a value, but when any particular locality is proven of actual worth by the product it gives forth, as is the case with the Westerlund tract, then its value gets into the four-figure row.
    The publisher of the Morning Mail will watch with considerable interest and pride the certain outcome of Mr. Westerlund's venture in this valley.--Medford Morning Mail, October 30, 1909.
Better Fruit, August 1910, page 31


    While the development of the Northwest in all lines has been rapid, it has been almost a regret to the districts of Oregon that the state did not keep pace with the development in other sections, but all this has changed within a comparatively short time. During the past two or three years no state west of the Mississippi River has developed more rapidly than Oregon. The resources of Oregon are manifold, and of all the different industries of the Northwest, no industry has grown more suddenly or more rapidly, or achieved more publicity and prominence than the fruit industry. Great waste tracts in Southern Idaho and Eastern Washington, covered with sagebrush all dormant for years, now are being rapidly developed for diversified farming and fruit growing. Southern Oregon, frequently called the Rogue River Valley, for many years was without proper railroad facilities. There was no railroad connection between Portland and San Francisco, and the editor of Better Fruit has made a large part of this trip by stage. Today, the Southern Pacific goes through the entire Rogue River Valley, running several through trains each way daily. Before there was adequate railroad transportation, Southern Oregon was largely devoted to general farming and stock raising, but some of the pioneer settlers discovered that Southern Oregon was an ideal fruit country. Mr. Stewart was one of the pioneers in the splendid fruit industry of this section, and much credit is due him.
    Rogue River Valley extends from Ashland to Grants Pass, a distance of a little over fifty miles. On both sides of the railroad can be seen orchard after orchard. From Grants Pass north, along both sides of the railroad are small valleys that are splendid fruit-producing sections. Fruit is also grown extensively around Roseburg, and many orchards are being set in Sutherlin Valley.
    This issue contains more or less descriptive matter and illustrations which we hope will give our readers valuable information about Southern Oregon. The July edition of Better Fruit featured the Willamette Valley from the fruit point of view, and in future numbers, from time to time, as far as space will permit, we will endeavor to feature other famous fruit districts, like Wenatchee, Yakima, Southern Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Montana, and British Columbia, but as this edition contains a great deal of interesting reading matter about Rogue River Valley, it seems fitting that a few words should be said editorially about this section.
    Rogue River Valley is about halfway between San Francisco and Portland. It is a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, and the scenery is magnificent. The famous Rogue River flows through the entire length of the valley and affords excellent sport for the man who loves angling. The resources of this valley are many. It is only a question of a comparatively short length of time when this entire valley and the sloping surrounding hillsides will be covered with orchards and vineyards. Southern Oregon has achieved fame for the quality of its apples, pears, peaches, grapes, cherries and other fruits too numerous to mention. All kinds of fruit seem to thrive and do well, but perhaps Southern Oregon has achieved more fame from its pears than any other one variety of fruit, and as far as we know, no country in the world is better adapted to producing pears than this section. It is certainly true that Southern Oregon has received the highest price for pears by the carload ever achieved in the history of the business, and many of them, like the Comice, bring $5,000 and over per carload. Among the pears that are grown most extensively in this district that may be mentioned are Bartlett, Anjou, Winter Nelis, and Comice. Many varieties of apples are grown successfully in this district, but probably a greater percent is devoted to Newtowns and Spitzenbergs than any other two varieties. The Spitzenbergs go to New York and the Newtowns to England. Net returns are reported from different growers varying generally from $300 to $1,000 per acre. In some instances, the latter figure has been considerably exceeded.
    Fruit growing is attractive to men in all lines of work, because the business pays and because it is pleasant and independent. Southern Oregon is particularly attractive to the Easterner on account of the mild weather and healthy climate, never very cold in winter nor hot in summer. It might be classed as a climate halfway between Oregon and California. That means it is ideal.
Better Fruit, August 1910, page 62


    After a number of preliminary moves in forming the association, the committee on organization was named. It had on it fifteen representative men from all sections of the valley, from Ashland to Merlin, sixty-five miles. It called for a new conception of organized effort, and the result is something midway between a one-town association and the California Fruit Exchange. One small union was superseded and two associations were absorbed, making not an exchange, but one large association, with twelve shipping stations, five houses for storage and packing, one manager over all, all business going through a central office. The packers are being registered, organized and instructed, all material for the orchard and the packing house being purchased by one man, and all information is gathered at the central office. All inquiries for Rogue River fruit comes here; everything is billed from here, and all money comes here.
    The value of cooperation to a large section is evident, especially where the fruit is nearly uniform. Besides the difference in supplies of every description, the organization of packers and help of all kinds, it makes the actual handling of the fruit easier and cheaper. In shipping, the expense to the shipper, large or small, is much reduced; and thus, if for no other reason than that expert help is provided. It is the case of the specialist being employed. With a definite standard of excellence in the pack to be reached, with schools in the instruction of packing of various kinds of fruit, with semi-supervision at the grower's packing house, and rigid inspection of all fruit before shipped, a pack is attainable that will at least be nearly uniform and will give some standing in any market, year after year.
    Crowning this is to come something like a scientific distribution of the fruit, intelligent marketing. This means to sell the fruit to the people that really want it, and [this] only becomes possible where a large amount of fruit is at the command of the distributing organization. It is one thing to make soap; it is altogether a different thing to sell soap. It is one thing to raise fruit, and quite another thing to sell it. There is no necessary vital connection between the two things. One requires a certain scientific common sense and physical labor; the other requires a broad intelligence concerning the needs and wants of the population of many cities and towns, and the ability to gauge their wants as a whole, and to attempt with real salesmanship to supply these wants.
    There is a suspicion in many minds that cooperative associations are pure philanthropy, with enough business in them to save them from the Sunday school class. This suspicion exists because of the inability to see the business end of the organization, the cooperative sentiment necessary for the formation of such an organization being some evidence that many do not see past it. But cooperative buying and selling is pure business, and if it is not financially successful does not obtain better prices, create better conditions, it is not a success, and no amount of sentiment will hold it together. Education in cooperation comes only through experience and demonstration. One successful association is worth years of talk.
    The ground has not all been covered by any means; there are many ideas unworked, others not worked out. Every new association opens new possibilities in cooperation, suggests different solutions to its problems.
    The year 1910 will probably see the largest crop of fruit that has ever been raised in this valley; it is estimated at a thousand cars, and the association will ship about 95 percent of it. To be able to bring this fruit to the rolling stage, to have a pack that is something near uniform, that is satisfactory on the whole to market and grower--good at both ends of the line--to satisfy the constituency that grows the fruit and the market that buys it, is no small undertaking in a territory as large as this. But, unless this is done more or less successfully the fruit business cannot maintain its high level here. Future investors will look twice at the finest land if they are not assured of intelligent marketing of their fruit, but where it reaches a more or less certain market, and is handled satisfactorily from the blossom to the table, and yields something--a fair return for the intelligence and labor expended--it can be said to be the finest of the producing occupations.
    Someday we shall have our own pre-cooling plant; another day, when we are producing and selling 5,000 instead of 1,000 cars, we shall have our own marketing machinery and our own agents in all the markets where our fruit is consumed. In the meantime, we content ourselves with the machinery that already exists for marketing.
    There will be this year no competition between Rogue River pears in any market, for our distributing agent is the Stewart Fruit Company, and they will handle them all.
    The success of the association so far is due to the time and effort given willingly by a number of men, among them some of our large orchardists, and others who have gladly made whatever sacrifices that were necessary in order to make the association a real and working force. With such a beginning, all that is needed now is the cooperation of the fruit growers with their fruit to ship. All cooperative institutions are difficult of management because of certain kinks in human nature; but no situation is impossible. The cooperative marketing idea is growing and the time is not far distant when the Pacific Northwest fruit exchange will be here, taking in every section and its associations, and doing business to the satisfaction of all.
    (Editor's Note--The manager, Mr. C. W. Wilmeroth, has been an apple man for many years, not only well known to the trade, but an acknowledged past master in all that pertains to apples and their distribution.)
Better Fruit, August 1910, pages 72-75


    The manner in which John D. Olwell of this city blazed the trail for western fruit across the Atlantic, establishing the superiority of American-grown apples and pears over the choicest specimens of European orchards, is told in an article appearing in this week's issue of the Saturday Evening Post under the caption "Short Cuts from Farm to Market," from the pen of Walter F. Woehlke, a recognized authority on marketing of fruit and farm products. Mr. Woehlke says:
    "Quantity, size, overpowering mass, the superlative expressed in seven figures, have been Europe's strongest impression of American activities and products. The bigness of things in the New World has ever been the wonder of the old. Somehow, though, this admiration of the size and quantity of things American was always mixed with a slight disdain; its open expression was usually qualified with a 'But----.' Europe did not believe that America would ever reach its standard of quality. That this European notion is not well founded, at least so far as American fruit is concerned, was proved by the enterprise of John D. Olwell, a fruit grower in the Rogue River Valley of Southern Oregon, whose energy not only blazed the trail for western fruit across the Atlantic, but who also established the superiority of American-grown apples and pears over the choicest specimens of European orchards by the fire test, in which the American fruit panned out the highest percentage of fine gold.
    "Some seven or eight years ago Olwell heard a rumor concerning the reported sale of a shipment of Oregon Newtown Pippin apples in London. Though he could never confirm the rumor, his imagination was aroused, and he determined to see for himself whether a market for Oregon fruit could be established in England. Though he rode all over the valley hunting for a son of Albion who might put him in touch with a London commission house, he could not procure the information. Perhaps a London paper would help him out. He wrote; and in due time the name and address of a firm was sent him. That fall Olwell consigned two carloads of Newtown Pippins to the London house and waited.
    "Six weeks later Olwell received a cablegram announcing the sale of his apples and stating the proceeds in pounds and shillings.
    "'I guess I must be a little rusty on international exchange,' muttered Olwell after calculations lasting an hour and covering many a square yard of paper.
    "'What's a pound and a shilling worth in real money?' he asked at the bank.
    "'About five dollars to the pound and two bits for a shilling,' came the answer. 'What's up, John? Did a rich English uncle die?'
    "'Much obliged. No, my old uncle over there is still alive. I just wanted to find out how much I had coming from him,' said Olwell; and once more he translated the English currency terms into dollars and cents. The result confirmed his suspicions. Somewhere along the line a mistake must have been made in transmitting the figures. Here he had been getting seventy to ninety cents a bushel box for years; this cablegram said the same apples had brought three dollars a box on the other side. Somebody must have gotten off wrong. Olwell said nothing and waited for the letter. It came, and the draft it carried called for the same incredible amount. Still afraid of waking up--of receiving a cablegram rectifying the mistake--Olwell carried the draft around for several days before he dared cash it. Once the three-dollar dream had become a concrete reality, he got busy. The next year no apples were left in the valley for ninety-cent buyers. Olwell took over the entire crop and shipped it to London as fast as the apples were picked, anxious to increase the gold imports.
    "As the Newtown Pippin, a green-yellow apple, had captured London, so the Spitzenberg captured New York. Under the stimulus of high bids from the fruit centers of the world, many young quality orchards are rising everywhere in the sagebrush country and the clearings of the Far West."
Medford Mail Tribune, December 2, 1910, page 1