424 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. [1841 



the sycamore, and the feathery scones of the cotton-wood, 

 wave above a dense undergrowth of willows, hazels, and wild 

 roses, amid which occasionally glisten the silvery trunks of the 

 birches, "the ladies of the wood." 



South of the Columbia river, however, there is, compara- 

 tively speaking, but little forest-land. But in northern Oregon 

 there is an abundance of timber for home consumption, as well 

 as for exportation ; and since the discovery of the gold mines 

 of California and the rapid population of that territory, the 

 value of the timber has enhanced in a wonderful degree. 

 Californiais almost entirely destitute of timber for building, and 

 for years to come, the chief supply must be obtained from the 

 exhaustless forests of Oregon, where the immense water power 

 renders every desirable facility for getting it out in any 

 quantity.* 



All kinds of grass — timothy, clover, and blue grass — grow 

 with the greatest luxuriance in the valleys of the Columbia, 

 Willamette, Umpqua, and other streams in the eastern sec- 

 tion. Indeed, the country seems to be peculiarly well adapted 

 to their growth, and it can scarcely be excelled in the Union 

 for good pasturage. There are two crops of rich, juicy grass, 

 produced on the river prairies ; one in the spring, and the 

 other after the overflow subsides, in July or August. Yet 

 there is very little hay made ; the scythe and the rake, and 

 the toil and sweat of the mower, are rendered almost unne- 

 cessary by the kindness of nature. The growth of the grass is 

 &o rapid in the early summer, that the subsequent heats coiv- 

 vert it readily into hay where it stands, without the loss of 

 any of its juices. Upon the second crop the stock feed during 

 the winter. 



The soil of the prairies and interval lands contains an 

 abundance of silex, and where it is sufficiently dry produces 



* In September. 1849. timber was worth from forty to fifty dollars per thousand 

 feet, in Oregon, for exportation to California, and will probably never rule below 

 twenty dollars, even when prices fall back to their prop-r level, Beef pork, 

 grain, butter and cheese, indeed all kinds of agricultural products raised in 

 Oregon will doubtless find a ready market in California for many years to 

 come. 



