GRAPE CULTURE IN SOUTHERN OREGON.--It is a remarkable fact that the people of Southern Oregon, with no less than the usual thrift and enterprise, should not yet have turned their attention to this lucrative and important branch of agriculture. In various localities in this county, we notice with pleasure that many new orchards have been planted during the past spring, but do not hear of the planting of a single vine. Our farmers, and those owning small patches of ground, should take into consideration that the vine is best cultivated on soil, and in situations, that for orchards or cereals are worthless. Experience in the valley of Sonoma has shown that the heavy, rich bottom lands, so peculiarly adapted to grain culture, are but illy adapted to vine raising, and that their proper locality is the apparently barren hills where scarcely a blade of grass was to be found. The finest and most productive vineyard in the state of California is on Wolfskill's ranch, and planted on a loose, barren, decomposed granite. We have hundreds of acres of just such soil in our county--hundreds of acres that are yet open to the occupation of the agriculturist. We have a climate extremely well suited to successful grape growing, and a good market in Northern Oregon and Idaho Territory for every gallon of wine that could possibly be manufactured in this county. It only requires the attention of our people to be turned in this direction, and we predict that the great success from this profitable branch of industry will soon more than compensate us for the annual depletion of our placer mines. We hope our German citizens, who are noted for their thrift, will take this subject into consideration, and invite immigration to occupy and improve the lands which are now lying waste in this portion of the state.--Sentinel.
Oregonian, Portland, June 21, 1866, page 4


    The grape crop in Rogue River Valley is a great deal larger this year than usual, and the quantity of wine that will be made will exceed that of any previous year.
"Oregon," Oregonian, Portland, October 26, 1877, page 1


    JACKSON COUNTY GRAPES.--A number of clusters of grapes, from a box sent to Ed. F. Lewis of this city by C. C. Beekman and W. M. Turner of Jacksonville, were left at this office yesterday. They were the most delicious grapes imaginable, thin skinned, juicy and fine flavored. When the Oregon and California railroad extension reaches Jacksonville Portland and have no need to import grapes from California, and the Rogue River Valley will become the fruit garden of Oregon.--Oregonian.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, October 27, 1883, page 3


    Just see what a broad expanse of vine-bearing lands that railroad will open out for cultivation. It is the furthest northern spot in the great viniferous belt, of which San Bernardino Valley is the southern extreme; and from the red gravel lands of the foothills in Jackson and Josephine counties, the central portion of Oregon must henceforth look for not only its supply of domestic wines and brandies, as its table grapes as well. The Mission grape, which is an entire failure in the Willamette Valley, thrives and may be successfully grown in the Rogue River country, especially upon such hillsides as have a southerly exposure; nor is it necessary to dethrone wheat as the staple product of the valley lands, for grapes always attain their highest state of perfection on the red gravel lands. If the land-owners of Rogue River will set out vines of three varieties--the White Chasselas, Mission and Black Hamburg--they will have grapes fit to ship to Portland from the 20th of August to the 1st of October, the Chasselas being the first to ripen. The valley wines have been heretofore limited in production, owing to the want of facilities for cheap transportation; but once give those vineyards the advantage of low freights to market, and we shall see Rogue River wine in every retail store in Portland and the valley towns. At present the loss on grapes shipped hither by steamer from San Francisco is nearly 16 percent, as five days generally elapse between the picking of the grapes and their opening for sale in this city. But land grapes here from Rogue River inside of thirty hours from the time they are picked and the loss would not exceed 5 percent; besides which the money paid for them by consumers would all be kept within the state, instead of being sent abroad to enrich the owners of California vineyards.
"What Will It Do?" Oregonian, Portland, December 9, 1883, page 1


    One of the principal claims made by Southern Oregon in bidding for immigrants is that it is par excellence a fruit-growing country. The assertion has never been proved more completely than this year, which has seen the heaviest shipments of fruit ever made from that region. In spite of a great deal of talk little real progress was made in the culture of such fruits as grapes, peaches, etc., until within two or three years past, when the orchards and vineyards of some comparatively late settlers, principally from California, came into bearing, and their product, mainly from well-selected varieties, carefully cultivated, sets at rest the doubts and queries concerning Southern Oregon's capabilities in that direction. As to grapes, it was early found that they would grow, and some half dozen vineyards of small extent were established some years since, and have produced fairly ever since. The principal of these are the vineyards of J. N. T. Miller, at Jacksonville, and a neighboring one of rather less extent. These are well located, being upon sloping land, at a moderate elevation above the mean level of the Bear Creek Valley, but hardly as high as prudence would dictate to be out of the way of frost, which it is now well understood does not touch the elevated lands, while making its full influence felt by the vegetation of the low lands. It is quite unfortunate that no continued attempt was made to ascertain the best variety of vines to cultivate, for the common Mission grape, almost the only variety cultivated, while it is a very healthy stock, is not by any means the most valuable grape to grow for general purposes. For wine-making it is far superior to the Zinfandel, the Riesling, or a hundred other kinds, while for table use it has no standing whatever. It is, however, a good keeper, and hence of some value for family use. California produces over 1000 varieties of recognized peculiarities, of which the Mission, the earliest introduced (it was brought by the old Spanish padres who entered California in 1796), is perhaps the poorest. This variety grows as well in Southern Oregon as in California, and the man who can distinguish by sight or taste between grapes grown in the two localities must indeed possess critical discrimination. Among those who raise the Mission grapes is a vineyardist of Willow Springs, who has an abundant crop this year, which he is peddling out to his neighbors at seventy-five cents per box, which is about $60 per ton. But the market is not large without wine making; indeed, the market for grapes would not be large enough for any considerable product, and grape culture in this locality specially fitted for it could never grow to any great proportions.
    The best situations for graperies in the Rogue River country are not on the level farming lands, but the sidehills at an altitude of from 300 to 1000 feet above the valleys. Such lands, now mostly overgrown with underbrush and littered with logs and rocks, will very possibly be worth as high a price per acre as any others in a few years, when their capabilities are known. Some ten years since, the great discovery of the so-called "thermal belt" was made in California. It was suddenly noised around that there was a peculiar virtue in the sidehill lands whereby they were not affected with frost. Of course this fact had long been known and acted on; but the reiteration of it opened people's eyes and they saw such boundless opportunities for making money by raising fruit in a frost-proof country that there was at once quite a fever of speculation in this line, and a good many people invested in small parcels of hill land on which they planted vineyards. To such a height did the fever reach that extensive hilly tracts of chamisal on the borders of Santa Clara Valley, hitherto deemed valueless, were quickly sold at prices equal to the cost of improved farms. A hundred dollars an acre for chamise brushland, almost standing upon edge, was not deemed extravagant. The fever has spent itself, but the buyers of "thermal belt" vineyards have done well, and the theory of a region of no frost is abundantly proved.
    The same thing is true everywhere in valley and mountain regions, and nowhere more so than in Southern Oregon. On the lowlands along the streams vegetable growths are more than likely to be nipped ere the fruition of the crop; but lying in the hills further back is complete immunity from such ills. Experience has shown this to the farming classes long ago, but the lesson is even more pertinent in the case of fruit growers.
of Southern Oregon is very extensive. It reaches along both sides of the Bear Creek Valley from Barron's to the Rogue River, and along the latter stream from Table Rock to Galice Creek. There are extensive tracts along the Applegate that could be put to no better use than fruit raising, particularly grape culture. The old abandoned placers of the California mines have been given over to vine-growing, and very probably those of Southern Oregon may also be. It is a pleasing sight to see the old gold washings where delved the rigorous miner of a past generation now growing thickly with Isabellas, Chasselas, Black Hamburgs and Flaming Tokays. There is no need of scrimping for soil to grow grapes on in Southern Oregon, for in Jackson and Josephine counties there are three times as many acres fit for grapes as are suited for wheat. In fact, to make the assertion comprehensive, there is more land suited for fruit growing than for all general purposes of agriculture, including all its departments save grazing.
    A great temporary advantage is the freedom of our vines from phylloxera, the pest which has overspread and ruined the vineyards of Europe and is inflicting great loss upon those of California. We say temporary advantage, for with the spread of vine culture it is doubtful if our vines, imported as most of them will be from the affected vineyards of the golden state, can be kept free from the dreaded insect. However, there is no need to borrow trouble, more especially as Prof. Hilgard and the Viticultural Society of California have strong hopes of being able to eradicate, or at least restrain, the pest.
    Some time since a controversy of some acerbity was carried on in the columns of this paper upon the subject of prune growing in Douglas County. It was amusing in one respect, since there is no more doubt of the adaptability of Douglas County and Southern and Western Oregon generally to prune raising than to wheat growing. One grows as naturally as the other, and whether the disputed point of so many bushels to the tree was correct or not it does not matter in the least, since if we measure the prunes by the tree or by the acre there is enough land to spare. The great trouble with crops of that kind is that the demand is too limited to allow the supply to grow into a steady and regularly lucrative business. There is not the remotest shadow of a doubt about Oregon's ability to supply the world with prunes, fresh or dried. To show that we are not too far north, it is well to cite the case of the Vancouver Packing Company, who are regularly putting up dried prunes, the fruit being exclusively a product of Clarke County, W.T., and unsurpassable for flavor and good appearance, both green and dried. As to the proper habitat of prunes, experience shows them to be so hardy that they grow equally well from San Diego to Puget Sound, and very likely may be found to flourish in British Columbia.
    Nowhere does the strawberry grow with more luxuriance, or acquire a finer flavor, than in the plantations about Roseburg. There is a peculiarly sheltered nook along the South Umpqua which has proved particularly favorable, both in soil and climate, to this invaluable berry, of which it was said that Providence doubtless might have created a better, but presumably never did. Mr. Johnson, the pioneer of strawberry culturists in Southern Oregon, has a large and flourishing plantation of them, covering several acres, which is well worth a long journey to see. He has, with rare foresight, experimented largely in varieties, seeking to find that most perfectly adapted to the conditions prevailing, and he certainly produces as fine flavored berries as ever were raised. People often speak of the superior flavor of Oregon fruit over that of California, instancing in particular the apples. The comparison is equally advantageous in the matter of strawberries, the northern-grown fruit having a piquancy and strength of flavor quite unknown in the more insipid southern fruit. This comparison is distinctly favorable to us in the matter of apples, plums, prunes and pears, and all berries, but not so as to peaches, in which we shall have to yield the palm to California. Strawberry culture is not a business capable of very great expansion, more especially as there are very few tracts of cultivable land in the Northwest where the berry will not grow, but as far as a favorable locality goes, the people of the Umpqua valleys probably have advantages beyond any other region. One of these is the abundance of water by which irrigation--found very useful in this art--may be affected. Nobody in California attempts to raise them without irrigating, whereby larger berries and more numerous crops are secured, and bugs, worms and other parasites are drowned. Referring to the wide dissemination of this fruit in the Northwest, the writer has eaten excellent strawberries which grew upon a farm in Bear Prairie, Washington Territory, 3000 feet above sea level, but they were perceptibly different in flavor from the California berries, and far superior.
Oregonian, Portland, October 25, 1887, page 3


    JACKSONVILLE, Or., Sept. 39.--(Special.)--The question as to who is the father of the grape industry in Rogue River Valley has been raised as the outcome of a banquet recently given by a real estate firm at Grants Pass in honor of A. H. Carson, a grape grower of that section of the valley, who is credited with being the originator of the grape industry in Southern Oregon. As this banquet got considerable publicity in the Oregonian and as it is an unearned and unfair honor to credit Mr. Carson, or any of the other present vineyardists of Jackson or Josephine County, with being the father of the Rogue River Valley grape industry, the true facts are herewith given:
    To the late Peter Britt, of Jacksonville, belongs the honor of introducing tame grapes into Rogue River Valley, and of having the first commercial vineyard. This vineyard consists of 15 acres and is one of several in this vicinity that have demonstrated that Rogue River Valley can produce a grape and a wine equal to the best of the famous grape districts of Europe. Mr. Britt was reared in the grape district of Switzerland, and, having traveled in France, he thoroughly understood the growing of grapes and the making of wine. He arrived in Jacksonville in the fall of 1852, being one of the pioneers of this old mining town, and noted the vigor of the wild grapevines about here, and he determined to give tame grapes a trial. He got his first vines from California in 1854 or 1855. These were the old Mission grapes, and they grew so well that he later got in other varieties and for the 50 years to the time of his death in October 1905, Mr. Britt carried on the work of demonstrating what were the best grapes for this soil and climate, and in that period he grew over 200 varieties of American and European grapes. Vines were had from Mr. Britt for every vineyard in Rogue River Valley, including Mr. Carson's, that were planted prior to the last ten years.
    The Britt grapes and the Britt wine were famous while yet Mr. Carson was a struggling lawyer in Arkansas, and the fine quality of both were known to all pioneers of the Pacific Coast who had occasion to pass through Jacksonville on the stage line in early days or the railroad in recent time.
    Mr. Britt was a lover of nature as well as a scientific horticulturist, and the park about his residence in this place has been for years one of the leading attractions of Southern Oregon. A picture of it has appeared in all the railroad advertising of this section for 20 years past. In this park is a sequoia gigantia (California big tree) which Mr. Britt planted 46 years ago, getting the seed from the famous grove of big trees in Yosemite Valley. This tree is now fully 100 feet high and 152 inches in circumference three feet above the ground. A palm tree 28 feet high, growing out of doors all seasons of the year, is another interesting feature of this park. Mr. Britt originated a walnut tree that has proven to be superior in many respects to the imported varieties. For 26 years the original tree has never failed to bear a crop of nuts, and trees of the second and third generation have borne nuts quite equal in size and fine quality to those of the parent tree.
    Mr. Britt took the first photograph of Crater Lake. This was in August 1874, long before the present simple and easy method of taking photographs was invented, and the outfit that he had to take to the lake on pack horses over a rough mountain trail weighed 600 pounds. He had to fit up a darkroom and prepare the plates at the lake, yet with all these difficulties to overcome he got a view of the famous mountain wonder that has not been excelled in clearness by the photographers of today, with their splendid equipment. Mr. Britt was one of the first in the United States to take pictures by the daguerreotype process, and he was also one of the first to use photography. He had one of the first galleries opened in Oregon, doing his first photography at Jacksonville in the fall of 1852. His gallery, which is kept just as the old gentleman left it by his son, Mayor E. Britt, of this place, is one of the most interesting places in all Oregon to the lover of pioneer relics and history. The collection of cameras embraces every design, from the first crude photographic instrument to the perfect one of today. A complete daguerreotyping outfit is also one of the interesting curios. There are also to be seen hundreds of photographs of pioneers, many of them persons of note in the history of Oregon and of the Pacific Coast. The famous picture of Governor Pennoyer, with the high collar so familiar to newspaper readers of years ago, was taken by Mr. Britt, and the old Governor was so well pleased with it that he would send to Mr. Britt for additional photos whenever his supply ran short.
Oregonian, Portland, September 30, 1907, page 2

SHOULD PLANT GRAPES HERE
An Interesting Letter from A. H. Carson. Oregonian's Story of Peter Britt.

    Following is a very interesting letter from A. H. Carson, a member of the State Board of Horticulture, and one of the most expert fruit and horticulture raisers in Southern Oregon.
"Murphy, Or., Sept. 27th, 1907.
    "Editor Jacksonville Post,
        "Jacksonville, Or.
"Dear Sir:
    "I noted the correction you made wherein the Sherman Realty Co. of Grants Pass named me as the 'Father of the Grape Industry of the Rogue River Valley.' There is no
question in my mind but what the late Peter Britt of Jacksonville deserves that distinction, and I for one would not for a moment wish to take that honor from such a grand, old pioneer horticulturist as I knew Peter Britt to have been.
    "Perhaps had the Sherman Realty Co. said I was the 'Father of Commercial Grape Growing in the Rogue River Valley' it would have come nearer stating the facts as they are, as I think I was the first one that put the Rogue River grapes on the market in attractive packages and pushed their merits in competition with California-grown grapes in the Portland markets, that today they sell for more money per crate than the California grape.
    "I am in hopes Jacksonville will awaken to the possibilities of grape growing on commercial lines, as the foothills adjoining Jacksonville I know to be especially adapted to the growing of the choicest Tokays and Malaga grapes. Jackson and Rich gulches have already given up their great wealth. The pioneers of Jacksonville enjoyed the same. Their descendants can if they will create greater wealth more lasting wealth by planting their foothills to Tokay and Malaga grapes. Market demands will always be greater than their ability to produce.

''A. H. CARSON,
    ''Murphy, Or., R.F.D. No. 1."

    The question as to who is father of the grape industry in Rogue River Valley has been raised as the outcome of a banquet recently given by a real estate firm at Grants Pass in honor of A. H. Carson, a grape grower of that section of the valley, who is credited with being the originator of the grape industry in Southern Oregon. It is an unearned and unfair honor to credit Mr. Carson or any other present vineyardist of Jackson or Josephine county with being the father of the Rogue River Valley grape industry. The true facts are herewith given:
    To the late Peter Britt of Jacksonville belongs the honor of introducing tame grapes into Rogue River Valley, and of having the first commercial vineyard. This vineyard consists of 15 acres and is one of several in this vicinity that have demonstrated that Rogue River Valley can produce a grape and a wine equal to the best of the famous grape districts of Europe. Mr. Britt was reared in the grape district of Switzerland, and having traveled in France, he thoroughly understood the growing of grapes and the making of wine. He arrived in Jacksonville in the fall of 1852, being one of the pioneers of this old mining town, and noted the vigor of the wild grapevines about here, and he determined to give tame grapes a trial. He got his first vines from California in 1854 or 1855. These were the Old Mission grapes, and they grew so well that he later got in other varieties, and for the 50 years to the time of his death in October, 1905, Mr. Britt carried on the work of demonstrating what were the best grapes for this soil and climate, and in that period he grew over 200 varieties of American and European grapes.
    Vines were had from Mr. Britt for every vineyard in Rogue River Valley, including Mr. Carson's, that were planted prior to the last ten years.
    The Britt grapes and the Britt wine were famous while yet Mr. Carson was a struggling lawyer in Arkansas, and the fine quality of both were known to all pioneers of the Pacific Coast who had occasion to pass through Jacksonville on the stage line in early days or the railroad in recent time.
    Mr. Britt was a lover of nature as well as a scientific horticulturist, and the park about his residence in this place has been for years one of the leading attractions of Southern Oregon.
    Jacksonville correspondence to the Morning Oregonian.
Jacksonville Post, October 5, 1907, page 5


    At the present the acreage devoted to commercial grape growing in Southern Oregon is not large. The largest vineyard in this part of the state--one of forty-five acres--is owned by the writer, and is situated six miles south of Grants Pass, in Josephine County.
    The aggregate acreage now in grapes will not exceed two hundred acres in Josephine and Jackson counties. From the fact [that] the lands of Southern Oregon that are adapted to the vine are the hillsides and slopes of the foothills, the grape industry has been given no great thought or attention in the development of Southern Oregon's horticultural possibilities. I have realized for a number of years the adaptability of Southern Oregon's large acreage of foothill lands, with ideal climatic conditions for growing the grape were the people shown how. My own modest success [is] an object lesson of the fact that commercial grape growing will develop, and these cheap hill lands be improved and make many valuable homes for the settlers who may have the patience and industry to put them in vines and till them.
    For the past three years the success I have had on these hill lands in growing such superb European grapes as the Flame Tokay, White Muscat, Malaga and Red Emperor, marketing them in Portland markets in competition with the same vanities grown in California, [and] selling the Oregon-grown grape for more money per crate than California grapes, has attracted the attention of people who have lived here many years. The Flame Tokay reaches perfection on the hillsides of the Rogue River Valley as to color and flavor. When matured, ready to gather, the clusters on an October day look like balls of fire. There is no place on the Pacific Coast where the Tokay colors as highly as it does on the hillsides of the Rogue River Valley.
    Our soil and sunshine develop the acid and grape sugar in combination so perfectly that the Flame Tokay of Southern Oregon has no rival on the Coast in flavor for the table.
    All of Southern Oregon's choice grapes are grown without irrigation. They are firm and stand long-distance shipment. The shipping qualities of the Flame Tokay were thoroughly tested last season, when I shipped grapes to nearly all the Eastern and Southern states without ice. They were on the road from eight to ten days, and all crates shipped were reported in good condition on arrival. The fact that non-irrigated grapes stand shipment better than grapes grown by irrigation has awakened the people of Southern Oregon to the great opportunity now open to engage in grape growing on commercial lines and make these foothill lands valuable not only to the individual who improves  them, but to the states. The industry in Southern Oregon from now on will expand rapidly. During the next three or four years there will be many thousands of acres of commercial vineyards planted. I expect to see this industry grow to such proportions that seven to eight years hence Grants Pass will be the shipping point of hundreds of cars of Flame Tokay grapes.
    This winter the acreage that will be planted to Tokays is limited by the number of rooted Tokay vines that can be had of the nurseries on the Coast. Land owners have already filed orders with the nurseries of California and Oregon for rooted Tokay stock until it is exhausted. Josephine County will plant about 400 acres of Tokays this winter and Jackson County about 100. Men who have failed to get rooted vines are clearing and preparing land for next winter's planting. There will be 800 acres planted to grapes a year from this winter in the vicinity of Grants Pass. In varieties that will be planted the Flame Tokay will lead all others, with the Malaga, Emperor and Muscat [following] in the order named, all choice grapes for the table and for the long-distance shippers. As a money-making fruit the grape, in my opinion, is among the best. It is an annual producer. There are no off years with the grape. I have grown grapes in Southern Oregon for the past twenty-six years, and during that period have never lost a crop from spring or fall frosts. There is no spraying to do for insect pests and fungous diseases. There is no fungous disease the grape grower has to contend with, excepting powdery mildew, and it yields readily and cheaply to sulfur in powder form. Southern Oregon has soil and climate adapted to growing the vine on hundreds of her hillsides. Natural conditions of the Rogue River Valley for successful viticulture are the best, and the grape grower's success is assured if he plants the grape and attends to the necessary details in their proper season.
Jacksonville Post, June 13, 1908, page 9


    The vineyards on the hills above Jackson and Griffin creeks are now yielding their annual harvest of luscious grapes. Many of these vineyards were planted away back in the fifties when gold mining attracted the first settlers into the Rogue River Valley. Long before commercial orchards were thought of these vineyards were noted for their productiveness and for the lusciousness of their fruit. Copies of magazines of the time, such as the West Shore, sound the praises of the Jackson County vineyards.
    These vineyards, though some of them are unkempt, are still yielding tons of grapes each year, but on account of the activity in horticulture and other branches of farming and industry, viniculture has been nearly lost sight of.
    The variety that was planted to the greatest extent in the early day was the Blue Mission. This grape is noted for its fine flavor. The Mission grape is especially adapted to the making of grape juices, jelly and wine. In the hurly-burly of development along other lines, the utilizing of the products of the Mission grape has been partially overlooked. However, the  knowing housewife is now busily supplying the winter's demand of her household for jelly from these grapes while they are still rather green and is preparing for reducing them to unfermented juice later when the grapes are fully ripe. Besides the household consumption of the Blue Mission grape, there are a few wineries in operation which use a number of tons each fall. Then also, some families prepare wine for themselves, from this grape. The process consists of simply squeezing the juice out of the grapes and allowing it to ferment and later adding to the juice a little alcohol.
    Unfermented grape juice as a beverage is becoming increasingly popular in America and with good reason since it provides not only a delicious "food drink," but a wholesome food medicine as well.
    A well-known dietitian says: "Lemons and grapes contain more abundantly the potash salts of which all fruits have important quantities. Of these two fruits, grapes are better fitted for use as food proper, and are perhaps adapted to a larger percentage of the human beings whose digestive organs are in need of repair. Both the water and sugar of the grape require virtually no digestion, but are taken almost at once into the blood. The kidneys, liver, intestines and other organs are cleared and strengthened by the mineral elements of this fruit. In fact, if the grapes were a patent medicine, more could hardly be claimed for it, since it has been recommended and given as a cure for almost every form of respiratory ailment, for the nerves, the blood, the spleen, and for skin infections."
    This is a somewhat strong statement; but at least grape juice has this advantage over most patent medicines--if it does not effect a cure, it will at least do no harm. and it is exceedingly pleasant to take.
    Most housekeepers think of the Concord grape only when grape juice is mentioned; and certainly this grape gives a richly flavored juice that is always acceptable. But other grapes may be used, alone or in combination, giving almost as many colors and flavors of grape juice as there are of wine.
    There are several methods of extracting and preserving the juice, each of which has its good points and may be best adapted to particular circumstances or varieties of fruit. The less the juice is heated the more closely the original flavor is maintained, and the greater care must be taken in the sterilization of bottles, corks, etc.
    Where grapes are cheap and abundant, and sugar is high in price, grape juice may be used instead of syrup in the canning of the larger fruits. The grape juice usually needs to be concentrated by boiling before being used for this purpose. "Reduce one-third" (or boil down six quarts to four quarts) being the usual instructions.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 30, 1911, page B2

    In the "Resources of Southern Oregon," published by the state in 1890, among other things recited therein is:
    Among the early pioneers were those from every nation on earth, brought hither by the universal greed for gold, and among these were those from the vineyards of Europe, the peach orchards of Delaware, and the orange groves of the South. Thus, fortunately, the early fruit culture of Southern Oregon fell into worthy hands. During the early days the "big red apples" from the Willamette Valley obtained a reputation as wide extended as the state itself. The completion of the railroad brought a worthy rival for the summer hills of Southern Oregon, until now the Southern Oregon apple, peaches, grapes and melons are claiming first place in all the markets of the coast and interior.
    It is not strange that the natural home of the wild grape, the plum, the cherry, the strawberry, blackberry, huckleberry, serviceberry, hazelnut, acorn and haw should be supplanted by varieties improved by cultivation. The long summers or warmth, with summers not too hot, and the autumns perfect in thermal poise, gives to all fruit an
excellence of flavor and perfection of ripening excelled by no country on earth. As indicative of the mildness of the climate, figs, almonds, apricots, melons, sweet potatoes, peanuts, corn, tobacco and kindred fruits and vegetables thrive.
    In the past few years orchards have been planted by Eastern people who have chosen Southern Oregon as against all others for profitable fruit culture. From twenty- to eighty-acre peach orchards are not uncommon. All the large orchards, with rare exceptions, are but a few years old, although nearly every old settler has an orchard of from one to ten acres, Apples, peaches, plums, prunes and pears are the principal crop; yet nectarines, nuts of all kinds, berries, etc. may attain equal perfection.
    Southern Oregon is preeminently a fruit-growing country, and as such is destined to rank second to none in the markets of the world. The largest vineyards in the state are in Jackson County, the grapes successfully competing in the markets with the California product, the flavor unexceled.
    It is the prevailing opinion that Rogue River Valley is destined to become one of the noted champagne districts of the world, being similar in so many respects to that of France, specially partaking of the characteristics of the province of Champagne and the rich valley of the Aronne.
    However viewed, the great Inland Empire to the north and east, incapable of successful fruit culture, will make a market so extensive and varied that, of necessity, Southern Oregon must supply that demand; her fruit seasons seldom conflict with those of California. The legislature of 1889 appropriated $4,000 for a State Board of Horticulture to prevent and destroy fruit pests. There are two fruit-growing associations in Southern Oregon. The legislature of the same year appropriated $2,000 for a weather bureau, and the State Agricultural College is doing good work in aid of pomology and horticulture.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 1, 1928, page I5


    It is argued by some that the native wild grapes are the true indicators of propitious climatic conditions. The Oregon grape (berberis aquifolium), low Oregon grape (berberis nervosa), are both indigenous, and were eagerly sought for before the imported varieties supplanted them in the early settlement of the country. Rogue River Valley is specially adapted to the raising of grapes. It is destined to be a profitable industry in this part of the state. As yet the only disease of the vine here is mildew, occurring but rarely. Vines are rarely injured by winter freezing. The French method of pruning is the one in vogue in this region. No fertilizers are required, and the best vineyards are not irrigated.
    The Indian summer with its warm hazy atmosphere lasting from thirty to forty days, with possibly one shower of rain, makes a season for ripening of fruit unequaled, perhaps, by no place on earth. Grapes are picked and shipped from the vines in the valley as late as December first.
    The conditions for grape culture in the valley are analogous to the celebrated champagne districts of France, with better climatic conditions, being about the same annual temperature, the same rainfall, nearly a like distance from the ocean. The soil is different in that chalk beds are absent from the vineyards of Rogue River Valley, yet chalk is found in several places, while lime is found in close proximity to some of the best vineyards. Although the elevation of the vineyards of southwestern Oregon exceeds by nearly twice the elevation of those of France, yet the difference is equalized by their being several hundred miles nearer the Equator. More than that, and the chief advantage, is the longer season for ripening.
    With the hills of Jackson and Josephine counties dotted with vineyards and beautiful villas, and the valleys rich in harvest of wondrous fruitage, the castled Rhine will need to look to her laurels in the realm of song, while the classical vales of Italy and the sunny slopes of France will find a rival in the Rogue River Valley.
    Dr. T. F. Bioletti, grape expert of the University of California who came to Rogue River Valley in the fall of 1922 to investigate the possibilities of the grape-growing industry in the valley, said in his report that a Californian crossing for the first time the sheltering walls of the Siskiyous is filled with bewilderment when he wakes up in Rogue River Valley and finds himself still in Mendocino County, California. "A little reflection, however, explains everything very simply," he continued. "It is all evidently due to the mistake of an ignorant draftsman in the land office, who ruled the line delineating California an inch or so too far south--an inch or two that represents a vast extent of beautiful hills and rich valleys which culturally, if not politically, belongs to California."
Medford Mail Tribune, January 1, 1928, page I5