Beginning and Growth of Nursery Business. 291 



BEGINNING AND GROWTH OF NURSERY BUSINESS 



IN OREGON. 



By H. M. Williamson, in the National Nurseryman. 



The nursery business on tlie Pacific Coast had its beginnings in Oregon. The 

 first cultivated fruit trees on the Pacific Coast were planted in California by tlie 

 Mission Fathers. The Hudson Bay company had an assortment of apple, pear, 

 peach and plum trees growing in its garden at Vancouver, now in the State of 

 Wasliington, more than seventy years ago. The missionaries. Whitman and 

 Spalding, a little later brought to the Pacific Coast and planted seeds of apples 

 and pears, from which trees were grown, some of which are bearing excellent 

 Iruit to this day. All of these planted or propagated trees for their own use, and 

 not for sale. 



The first movement of homeseekers to the Pacific Coast was to Oregon. 

 Naturally, therefore, it was Oregon which first attracted the attention of 

 nurserymen. 



In 1845 Mr. Henderson Luelling, of Salem, Henry County, Iowa, conceived the 

 Idea of transporting across the plains in a wagon an assortment of growing 

 trees of standard varieties as a basis for the establishment of a nursery in Oregon. 

 He commenced preparations in the fall of that year, but did not start until the 

 spring of 1847. He had made two boxes which together just fitted into an ordi- 

 nary wagon box. In carefully prepared soil in these boxes there were growing 

 seven hundred trees, shrubs and vines, representing standard varieties, and including 

 a large number of varieties of apples and pears and a few varieties of plums, 

 cherries, quinces and flowering plants, also one Isabella grape vine and one 

 gooseberry plant. 



AN AUDACIOUS UNDERTAKING. 



Mr. Luelling's undertaking was so bold as to be audacious. The trip across 

 the plains was a long and arduous one. The majority of those who started 

 ■counted themselves fortunate to reach their journey's end with a small fraction of 

 the articles with wliich their wagons were loaded when they started. Mr. Luelling 

 crossed the Missouri River with his precious load on May 17. 1847. On his way 

 across the plains he was advised a number of times that his undertaking was 

 hopeless. A clergyman urged him to unload his trees and take the more valu- 

 able ( ?) effects of other emigrants who liad more than their teams could haul. 

 The trip was through a dry and thirsty land and over mountain ranges, but about 

 October 1 Mr. Luelling arrived safely at The Dalles, Oregon, with nearly all 

 the trees alive. From that point he proceeded by the water, route to Milwaukie, 

 Oregon, where he established himself. Mr. George H. Himes, assistant secretary 

 of the Oregon Historical Society, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the pioneer 

 history of Oregon, says it is an unquestioned fact that no other one importation 

 of pioneer days did so much to add to the income and wealth of the people of 

 Oregon as Henderson Luelling's traveling nursery. 



Mr. William Meek, who was acquainted with Mr. Luelling in Iowa, and knew 

 of his plan, followed his example in a small way. He started at the same time 

 with a few growing trees of standard varieties, and. having a lighter load than 

 Mr. Luelling. reached the State first. He temporarily located in Linn County, 

 but in the following spring (1848) took his trees to Milwaukie and entered into 

 partnership with Mr. Luelling in the nursery business under the firm name of 



