The Yamhill Country [pp. 498-503]

THE YAMHILL COUNTRY.
making an average of seven and a half
dollars for each tree. Counting seventy
trees to the acre, this gives a nice return
of $525 to the acre."
The plum ranks next in importance.
The variety known as prunes do not
flourish in any of the older States. The
trees are not productive and the fruit is
poor; but in this section of Oregon this
production promises the best results.
The valleys of the Columbia and Willamette are especially adapted to the
Italian variety, and the sweeter French
prune grows best east of the Cascades.
The Italian prune has the special merit
of being a fine dessert fruit while fresh,
and at the same time it bears shipment
well. It carries to New York or Boston
after it is ripe, and hundreds of carloads
go East every season, the demand increasing as the fruit becomes better
known. There are several new varieties
of which much is expected, and all the old
stock grows from a half more to double
the size grown in the Eastern States.
Pears of the largest size and finest
flavor are grown. Peaches, apricots, and
nectarines, do well, and there is a surplus, but it has heretofore been absorbed
by the mining regions of the Rocky mountains. None of the peaches shipped in
from California have equaled those grown
in the home orchards. Grapes of the
hardy variety like the Concord, Isabella,
and Catawba, bear readily, and the fruit
is of good quality..
Small fruits and berries grow extremely well. Most of the varieties are
good shippers and reach distant markets
fresh and firm. No winter protection is
required. Sufficient hands only are lacking to raise enough to displace all the
poisonous compounds that are being sold
under the name of "jellies" in all the
markets of the United States.
It is the cherry, however, that surpasses all the other fruits in Yamhill.
Nature seems to have spared no effort to
make this the perfect place for this fruit.
The choicest varieties attain the highest
degree of excellence, and seedlings have
been originated surpassing any of the
standard families. The Black Republican
originated in Oregon and cannot be
equaled as a shipping fruit. It is meaty,
rich, and highly flavored. Other varieties,
as the Bing, the Lambert, and the Hos
kins, have been sent East in small quantities, and sold for fancy prices. The
Hoskins, which originated in Oregon, was
the largest sample at the Columbian Exposition and was described in the report
of the Secretary of Agriculture for I893.
The yield of some trees is phenomenal.
Robert Glenn of the Portland Tribune has
a tree in his garden which produced over
twenty-five hundred pounds of fruit last
year. During the autumn of I893, F.
C. Smith, Horticultural Commissioner of
South Australia, visited Oregon, and in the
course of a report he made described the
Oregon appleas the bestthat hadever been
subjected for his inspection. A letter that
Sylvester Johnston wrote to the late J.
G. Lewis, who was for eleven years president of the Indiana State Horticultural
Society. superintendent of the Oregon
exhibit at the Columbian Exposition,said:
"This exhibit forever dispels the opinion
that California possesses superior advantages for fruit-growing to that of every
other region of the Pacific slope. The
Oregon exhibit of pears, apples, and
plums, was not only unequaled, but it
excelled that of every other State."
In this connection the fact may be noted
that the largest apple, the largest pear,
and the largest cherries, exhibited at the
Columbian Exposition were grown in
Oregon, and that a special gola medal was
awarded to Max Prachtof Ashland for the
largest and best flavored peaches. A carload of cherries shipped from Portland and
grown in Oregon and Washington, sold at
auction in Boston in 1895 for three thousand dollars.
The Pacific along this coast abounds
with halibut, cod, perch, herring,flounder,
sole, and other species; while the rivers
are full of trout, pike, sturgeon, and many
other food fishes. The shad has been
transplanted to these waters and thrives.
Oysters transplanted to the bays and inlets of the Oregon coast are as fat and
luscious as their congeners of Chesapeake
and the Atlantic shore, while the "native" is of a quality that commends him
to the discriminating epicure. Eastern
clams have also been introduced and the
product is not a disappointment.
But the "live stock of the sea" which
grows more and more important and will
continue to increase in value, is the
salmon. This noble fish winds its way
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