Looking into an encyclopedia--one of the latest--to find the continental range of the apple, we were arrested quickly by the sentence: "They are also raised in Oregon and California." After that the range of information in the article seemed likely to be academic, and not edifying. There was a little flavor of the racetrack in the sentence we carried away, but that may have been a matter of associated ideas, caught from that thesaurus of wisdom, the daily newspaper, for we have not yet seen a horse race. But the announcement that in the apple race Oregon "also ran" will startle several sections of a state early known to fame as the "Land of the Big Red Apple." But that was in the days of untutored nature, over which came an eclipse. We planted the orchards and went fishing. Nature made the apple a thing of beauty to look at, but presently the worms captured it, and the unplowed, unpruned, unsprayed, uncared-for trees became a blot on the landscape.
    But the perfection of the pioneer apples was a hint of what cooperation would do and, joining hands with nature, Oregon has set long trains of such perfect apples following each other in endless processions across the continent on their way to the markets of the world that other apple growers, who fancied that the best apple must have winter in its blood, began to sit up and take notice. It was a new thing in horticultural annals, and when discriminating buyers began to give the preference to Oregon apples and to send them to the most fastidious markets in the world, across seas, and halfway across distant continents; when the western apple package and the keeping qualities of the western apple began to revolutionize the whole apple trade, then it began to appear that the western apple tree held a secret which it did not get from the North Pole.
    Medford has become the center of the Rogue River Valley district, and in apple and pear production has drawn the attention and excited the wonder of half the world. This has turned upon the quantity as well as the surprising quality of the product, the yield of the orchard in number of boxes per acre, and the price per box in carload lots being quite phenomenal. It is one thing to secure a crop of good, sweet apples, but when you have also richness of coloring, excellence of quality--juiciness, spiciness, high flavor--and withal fine keeping qualities, then you have a combination which means the envy of all apple growers and money in your purse.
    A yield in sordid gold coin of one thousand dollars an acre was thought to be the limit a few years ago, yet the Rogue River Valley has exceeded this in many cases, even climbing as high as fifteen hundred dollars an acre. Even the Ben Davis, an apple whose right to a place in good society is disputed year after year, has returned over $10,000 from twenty-two acres. The fact seems to be that, after making allowance for exceptional cases which in apple growing do not make or prove the rule, a bearing orchard around Medford will net the owner from three hundred dollars to five hundred dollars an acre, and you can figure the value you ought to attach to, say, twenty acres of such fruit. It probably multiplies the price paid for the land by two figures.
    It is believed that the Gardner spray engine was first used in this valley, marking a new era in horticulture. So successful, and successful in such measure for a series of years, has been the culture of the King of Fruits that merchants, tradesmen and mechanics are interested in orchard properties of their own, and Portland capital is grouped in a large number of orchards just south of the little city of Medford. The largest one of these has five hundred acres set to trees, the next in size having two hundred and twenty-five acres, seventy of which are in bearing.
    It may be that there are large areas that will produce equally good fruit, but they have yet to be discovered and proved; meanwhile, the districts where soil and climate seem to hold the secret of perfect fruit will be good places for investment. Mr. Darwin said that he found a town in Chile that was buried in orchards, and where the streets were but paths between apple trees. In that amazing region so sympathetic was the soil that a large apple bough cut off and thrust two or three feet in the ground took root and bore fruit the second year. Nothing is lacking in detail but the quality of the fruit, which is quite fundamental. Besides the commercial profit of a Rogue River orchard, the trouble of planting with care the grafted youngster from the nursery is nothing, and as for the streets losing themselves in avenues of orchard trees, that will take care of itself, and in time you will have to look for Medford with a balloon, so lost to sight will it be in a wilderness of orchards.
    Solomon wanted to be "comforted with apples," and was probably in a bad way at that particular time, but the average man has a sort of polyglot taste, and wants a "balanced ration" in the orchard as well as at table.
    Among pears Medford makes a record that overtops her own apples. A carload of du Comice pears sold for $4622.80 gross in New York, which means about seventeen cents a pound at wholesale, or anywhere from ten to fifteen cents apiece for pears. Thackeray said that, as a boy, he very much wanted a chunk of taffy, but it cost a shilling and he didn't have the shilling. Afterward, when known to fame, he said that he "had the shilling, but didn't want the taffy." We outgrow some tastes, but a man is old and beginning to grow stale whose mouth does not water at sight of a luscious pear.
    Bartletts hold the most delicious nectar distilled in nature's laboratory, bottled in their skin; those shipped from Medford realized $5.05 per box in Montreal, Canada, and $4.60 on the American side.
    The Doyenne du Comice is a shy bearer elsewhere, but here yields prolifically. The Beurre Rose and the great de Anjou pear trees attain their highest excellence. For three years past the latter averaged nearly four dollars per box with no expense at harvest time save picking and packing.
    Peaches pay regularly from one hundred dollars up per acre, the hilltops furnishing ideal peach lands. The cherry is at home, and the upper valley of the Rogue has made a name for itself with this delicious fruit. The great canning cherry, the Royal Anne, is very popular, and its production is rapidly increasing.
    The Blenheim apricot, often a shy bearer, succeeds here, and has no better representative in any country. It can safely be chosen as a money maker, being popular everywhere.
    The Tokay and Concord grape have been tried here, and the hill lands are admirably suited, giving color and flavor. There is no reason why many European varieties should not thrive on these low foothills, the climate being dry, the air free from humidity, and the rainfall slight.
    Oregon produced last year apples to the value of $1,423,800, dried prunes worth $1,208,875, and other fruits sufficient to make a total of $4,275,185. This is an increase of 53 percent over the crop of 1906, and at the present rate of planting it will take but a few years to reach a value of $50,000,000.
    A market for Oregon apples is found in the East, in England, Scotland and Germany, and is being developed across the Pacific, several thousand boxes being sent annually to Vladivostok. Doubtless in time there will develop a great Asiatic market, as the people acquire ability to buy; permanent settlements and cities in Alaska, too, will want Oregon fruit.
    Will production outrun the market? Hardly. A hopeful sign of the times is the increasing consumption of fruit. As meat goes up and up by the exhaustion of the range and the increasing cost of feeding, fruit will take its place. As we become wise in the matter of dietetics, and in the management of what Carlyle styled "that diabolical arrangement called a stomach," we will use less meat and pastry and more fruit. As riches increase the demand will be for the best fruit, and the Deacon's "specked apples" will not be allowed in market; culls will make cider and vinegar and go to feed stock, and only the best fruit will reach the public. But the area is limited within which perfect fruit can be grown, and while prices may and will come down, the profit of orcharding in such a valley as that of the Rogue River will continue. That is to say, the best fruit will always command a good price.
    Transportation facilities will increase, and larger shipments will mean lower rates and the opening of new markets.
    Immediately around Medford first-class lands ready for the plow can be bought for one hundred and fifty dollars and two hundred dollars per acre, with an upward slant all the time. Farther-out land equally good can be bought for one hundred dollars, and a little farther out for fifty dollars. It is a matter of distance from the railroad rather than of the quality of the land or of water for irrigation. There are bottom lands of black loam lying along the Rogue and other mountain streams, and hill slopes which are not only fertile, but where the red-cheeked Spitz takes on a deep, dark, splendid red, and with the yellow Newtown Pippin makes a bouquet of color on the table. These lands have been tried, and it is known exactly what they will do, and transportation will take care of itself if a district so developed is away from the railroad.
    A fruit growers' association is here and will maintain a standard of excellence, while protecting the small grower. This is done by limiting shares to five, so that the big grower has no advantage over the little one, and is paid the same price per box.
    The very fact that this is and will continue a fruit center, known and sought for the quality of its output, opens a door for profitable industries of other kinds. A community of orchardists must be supported. The old-time shoemaker's children went barefooted, and the new-time fruit grower will produce nothing but fruit, and his family will want meat and milk, butter and cheese, berries and all kinds of "garden truck." Horses will be wanted, and cannot be grown in an orchard; hay will be needed by many who are virtually farmers but cannot produce hay. So all through, in proportion as a fruit district develops, will it make a market for the farmer's product. Increase of orchard area means a corresponding decrease of grain fields and hay meadows. More than that, it means a rapid increase in the local demand for grain and hay. Thus we shall see that while the local supply of grain and hay is decreasing because the land is being devoted to other crops, the demand is steadily and permanently increasing. Three horses do all the work on a grain farm of one hundred and sixty acres. When that one hundred and sixty acres has been cut up into twenty-acre orchards it will require sixteen to twenty horses to do the work on the same area of land. The remaining fields must furnish the oats and hay for five times as many horses, to say nothing of the cows the orchardists keep. It is a safe prediction that hereafter there will always be a live local market for all the grain and hay the valley may produce.
    This splendid forage grass is growing luxuriantly here, and is credited with from two to four crops without irrigation. In one instance eighty tons have been cut from seventy acres, and the average maintained for twenty-two years without irrigation. On unirrigated land returns of from forty dollars to sixty-five dollars an acre are realized. One farmer has one hundred acres seeded and irrigated. He cuts four times and averages five hundred tons. Another has twenty-five acres and averages six tons per acre. All this is solid business, not speculation--not subject to fluctuations. Another feature of it is the production of seed. Alfalfa seed commands ten cents per pound at wholesale, and the net yield has in a few instances exceeded seventy-five dollars per acre. The first crop of the season is cut for hay, the seed crop is harvested, and then the field is pastured until about the first of December. The situation is like that in the lower Willamette Valley where clover is grown for seed, the vitality of the seed having made its own market in the East. The seed grown here is superior, the climate in all this wonderful Pacific Coast country getting in its work, whether it is onion seed in California, alfalfa seed in the Rogue River Valley, or clover seed in the Yamhill country. Between the seed and the hay, alfalfa lands are in demand, and, while commanding a good price, yield a good net profit without rest. The growth of Medford will provide a market.
    Everything there runs back into climate, the absence of snow making the winter feeding season short, and freedom from cold and storms allowing cattle and other stock to be in the fields all the year. Orcharding as a large industry opens a wide door for the dairyman, and the very situation of the valley between mountains, away from the coast and midway between San Francisco and Portland will necessitate home production of supplies of all kinds. This is always a good rule--produce what you consume, and to do so means creameries, canneries, drying houses, packing houses and wholesale curing and preparation of meats.
    A creamery is here, and a good dairy cow is worth about seven dollars a month, while the value of skim milk for hogs and poultry is considerable.
    Horses and mules will find a good market; the Angora goat is profitable in the hills, and poultry get busy and do well with a little care anywhere. The industrious hen goes with the alfalfa field as doth the little busy bee.
    It is a region of great natural attractions, and the charm of crystal streams in the hills answers to the beauty of blossoming or fruit-laden orchards in the valley. In time not the city only, but the farm houses will be lighted by the currents generated by the streams, and the mountains will look down by day and night upon a land of enchantment. Mill Creek Falls, near Medford, is one hundred and ninety-four feet in vertical descent, and with Rogue River rapids will generate, it is estimated, 75,000 horsepower, while other streams will furnish 205,000 more.
    One of the large power plants of the coast is in operation here, the Condor Water and Power Company, located ten miles from Medford on the Rogue. Their lines reach farms and mines as well as the towns of the valley. Power is available for pumping and irrigation, and will, no doubt, in time drive the trolley and perhaps freight and passenger trains in this region and beyond. The mines are finding electrical power cheaper than steam, and this saves the timber for better uses.
    For the true hunter and fisherman the woods and streams around Medford are a paradise. Quail, grouse, Chinese pheasants, duck and snipe are nearby; black-tailed deer are in the mountains, and farther back in the less-frequented regions the black and cinnamon bear are plentiful. A few silvertips may also be found, and cougars, gray fox and the coyote.
    Rogue River is a fine trout stream, and as compared with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine and Canada woods and streams, the fisherman who is also a philosopher and a lover of the great and beautiful will greatly prefer these western wilds. The fact that here he can count on the weather, and the days are not rainy, the nights not muggy, and the streams not infested with gnats and mosquitoes, adds immensely to the enjoyment. It takes a good deal of enthusiasm--or grim resolution--to whip a trout stream and fight insects every instant, and then return to camp only to find a cloud of mosquitoes waiting your advent. Fishing involves toil, but it should mean enjoyment and not battle, and when the charm of these Pacific Coast streams is understood, the East will send many a representative of a noble brotherhood to try for trout and salmon in these hills.
    When the Medford and Crater Lake Railroad is completed, this great cobalt blue lake, in the heart of the forests and the bowels of a volcano, will attract many visitors. There is nothing like it in any country. A volcanic mountain, great as Shasta, that in mid-action, spouting flame and lava, choked with its own fury and blew its head off, is a phenomenon. But to leave a vast, glowing pit of fire more than twenty miles in circumference, to have this subside, and the pit become a lake of clear, blue water shut in by the fire-scorched walls of the ancient crater two thousand feet above the surface of the water--this is the miracle of these Oregon hills. There is no apparent outlet, and the source of the water remains a mystery. Lowell's fine line recurs: "Burned-out craters, healed with snow," but here what magic opened cooling springs to quench the heart of fire, and leave in place of terror a vision of beauty for all time? The mountain has disappeared, and in its place is this giant bowl; the water in it pure and cold and sweet, a lake six miles long by five miles wide, inaccessible save at one point, and from two thousand to six thousand feet deep.
    It is reached from Medford by wagon, the road itself a delight all the way, following the wild torrents of the Rogue as it struggles to escape from the hills.
    Shall it be an orchard in the valley, with the scent of blossoms, the aroma of the ripe fruit, and visions of ducats, or a tent by the laughing stream, the campfire with its pungent fragrance, and a trout broiled in the coals; a bed of boughs, the morning bath, and leisure to find yourself in the tranquil solitudes of the forest, away from the friction of civilized conditions? Happy the man who can have both the orchard and the tent in the forest!
Sunset magazine, November 1908, page 677

    If you want to move this summer you had better begin to look for a house right now. The only chance you will have to get another house will be to locate someone who is going to move out, then make an ironclad contract or you may lose your chance. A canvass of real estate men fails to show a house listed for rental. And when one is vacated it is immediately taken up by other parties.
    Expressions from different realty agents show it to be the belief that at present there are at least 150 residences in the course of construction throughout the city, and many more are contemplated. The principal business done by agents at present is the sale of small building lots, and nine out of ten of the lots sold, the buyers contemplate building. Where one large ranch is sold 5 building lots change hands, and dealers state that they expect a constantly increasing business during the summer.
    Just as soon as the city completes a few of the projects under way at present, such as the paving of Seventh Street, the water system and the like, a tremendous impetus to the realty business is expected. Strangers are arriving daily, and the majority of them are on the lookout for suitable sites for homes.
    The P.&E. railway, the coal mine and other industries contemplated and under way in Medford and vicinity will bring a host of men to Medford, and the majority of them are home-seekers and will in the course of time own their own homes. The town has got to the place now where it is going to grow without any hard pulling on the part of its citizens, but hard pulling will hasten its growth. So if you are thinking of moving you had better "get busy."
Medford Mail, March 20, 1908, page 4


    Next to Portland Medford has by far the largest number of licensed automobiles of any city in Oregon. The facts are interesting, and it is a curious comparison when the figures are presented showing the automobiles the different towns in the state can boast of. Up to date Portland has 552 licensed automobiles and Medford has 48. There are about 1,020 automobiles in Oregon, according to the license books in the secretary of state's office. After Medford comes Salem with 28 automobiles, although it is the next largest city in Oregon. After Salem is Pendleton with 27, and Grants Pass with 26, Baker City with 23, La Grande with 22, Astoria with 18, Albany with 13, Union with 13, and Roseburg, Eugene and McMinnville each with 12 automobiles.
"State and County News," Ashland Tidings, July 2, 1908, page 2

    F. E. McCullum, a representative of the Sunset magazine, has been in the city for several days. Of Medford he says:
    "After looking over the cities from Frisco north, I find a real clean city of enterprise, with stores stocked to do credit to a city of 20,000. It is my first stop in Oregon and am more than favorably impressed. Your population, according to voting records, has increased in two years from 720 to 1152, making an increase of population of over 2160. Good enough!"
Medford Mail, October 16, 1908, page 10


    The Rogue River Valley is essentially a fruit district, for there is to be found the happy medium between dryness and excessive moisture. It has a soil that is described as a rich sandy loam, which, in places, is made up of decomposed granite and is rich in fertilizing properties. In other places is to be found a rich vegetable mold, similar to the black soil that is familiar to the farmers in the eastern states. Apples, peaches, pears, plums and prunes are in the lead among the products grown in abundance, and fine wines are produced in some parts of the valley. Of the apples the variety known as the yellow Newtown pippins is probably the best known, and these are shipped as far east as London, England every year, along with large Bartlett pears. The apples and pears from this district go to all of the large cities in the eastern states and the peaches are sold readily throughout the entire Northwest. There is an apple orchard near Central Point, consisting of 160 acres, from which the net returns for a recent season were $20,000."
Chicago Record-Herald, quoted in "Deluged with Many Letters," Medford Mail, October 23, 1908, page 1

    Editor Reaper:--Agreeable to promise made you and a number of others before I left Richfield to let you hear from me, I will undertake to give you my impressions of this section of country and to give a little data and description which may serve to "fill the bill."
    To begin with I will say I like the Rogue River Valley, and the more I see of it the more I like it. Conditions right now are not very favorable for landscape viewing either. To one not personally acquainted with this state, mention of Oregon always first suggests a region in which the people constantly wear a raincoat and umbrella and rubbers. How they would be undeceived by a visit here now. To the uninitiated this looks like a semi-desert region, except where the hand of man has transformed it into a state of verdancy. The natural vegetation is drying and withering under the scorch of a hot summer sun.   
    A person looking at the country now with untrained eye, a person who generally measures a country by a cursory glance at its scenery alone, this valley at the present time probably would not prove very attractive or inviting. I am told, however, that beginning about the first of September fall rains begin--not continuously by days and weeks at a stretch, but light fall rains just sufficient to bring back to life all that now seems dead, to change each hill and slope and plain from a mat of gray and yellow sear to a carpet of emerald hue, and to give the final touch of perfection to the fruits which are beginning to make the fame of this region.
    But what attracts me--as they do all strangers who stop and make even a casual investigation--are the almost boundless and almost matchless resources and natural advantages which this country afford. Its development can truly be said to be only in its infancy. Not until a few years ago did the people who had resided here for years begin to learn the wonderful virtues of this valley for fruit growing.
    Experiments have demonstrated beyond any controversy that the soil and climate here are ideal for diversified farming, but more especially for fruit growing. Nowhere else in this country do certain fruits reach the state of perfect color and flavor and quality that they do here in the Rogue River Valley. Especially is this true of certain apples, pears, peaches, cherries, prunes, berries and Tokay grapes. The Spitzenberg apples are purchased wholly each year for the New York market, and the entire Newtowns [apples] are contracted for England. Through thorough and efficient care, disease and pest are practically unknown.
    The fame of the Rogue River fruit has been spreading rapidly during the past few years all over this country and extending even to Europe. As a natural consequence many people have been attracted hither and each day brings new people in here with a view of settling or investing. Old-time farm tracts are being cut up into small fruit tracts. Unimproved lands are being taken up and cleared to be set out to fruit trees and berry bushes. These choice orchard lands do not altogether lie in the flat of the valley, but the best fruit lands are the hill slopes, and all over the rolling hillsides can be seen ground cleared for or already set to orchards.
    Now as to a few figures. Last year 400 carloads of fruit were shipped from Medford alone. This year the output will be about the same. The yield is not quite so heavy this year as last, but the acreage is larger. Six years ago the assessed valuation of this (Jackson) county was about four and a third millions. This year it is nearly twenty-three millions, an increase of 430 percent in six years.
    Good unimproved or partially improved lands, somewhat removed from towns and settlements, can be had for from $25 to $50 an acre. There is a lot of good government land, however, which can be had for the usual government price. Lands more or less cultivated nearer to towns are valued at from $50 to $100 an acre, and improved farm lands and land close in runs from $100 to $200 an acre. Suitable orchard lands run from $125 to $200 an acre; lands with one- and two-year-old starts of fruit trees command $250 to $400, with four-year-old starts $300 to $500, and with good bearing orchards from $500 to $1200. The prices for fruit lands to you in Utah may seem very high, but when you take into consideration that orchards here bring in a revenue of from $300 to $1500 an acre year after year, the prices are far from unreasonable.
    When I say orchards bring in returns running over $00 an acre, I am not dealing in fancies. There are several here that did that last year and will do it again this season. In one or two instances as high as $2000 an acre has been realized.
    About Medford. This city is in the heart of the valley. This is sufficient to explain some of the phenomenal things about Medford which I am now going to mention.
    This is a city growing and advancing with rapid strides. A majority of the businessmen are practically newcomers, and they have that spirit of push, energy and activity which would make a splendid town of any community with less advantages than this has.
    Medford has doubled its population in the past five years, and I am willing to venture the prediction that it will double the present amount inside of the next eight or ten years.
    This city was recently bonded for $365,000 to establish a new water supply and distributing system. The mains are already laid and it is expected to have the water--fine, pure, cool water, direct from the mountain snows--ready for use by next June.
    Blocks and blocks of cement sidewalks--good wide sidewalks--are being laid this summer, and as soon as this is completed the main business thoroughfares are to be paved. A general sewer system is soon to be installed. In a couple of weeks the people are to vote on granting a franchise for a street railway and interurban line.
    Medford was the principal factor in contributing to the wonderful increase in valuation noted above. Increase in post office receipts, express, freight hauling and general business has been along similar percentages. Nice business blocks, beautiful homes, attractive yards, with here and there a towering pine or spreading oak undisturbed as it sprang from the wilderness, all make a charming effect.
    As you step or ride into the suburbs of the city, you begin to note little orchards or berry and vineyard tracts here and there, and you are not more than a couple of miles from the business center until you find yourself among the regular orchard lands.
    All of the things above recited have determined me to locate here. I might go on and add and elaborate and while it would not become tiresome to Reaper readers this is about as much space, I am sure, as can be allowed for the present.
    There is but one criticism to offer about this country, and to one who has seen the practical work and effects of irrigation as practiced in Utah, it is the one thing that readily strikes such a visitor. The wonder is that it has not been adopted here. It would not be necessary to store the water here as in Utah. The Rogue River would provide an ever-flowing stream sufficient to water this whole valley, hill slopes and plain.
    It is coming. People who know what irrigation means are getting hold of lands and they are beginning to stir this matter up. Irrigating enterprises are already under way of promotion, and it will not be many years until this valley will have canals extending along both sides. And when that time comes, I cannot imagine a more perfect condition for what is now making, and will in the future make, this one of the most ideal farming and horticultural sections of the globe.