292 Appendix. 



LUELLIXG & MEEK. 



They were able to find at the homes of settlers a few seedling trees, mostly 

 grown from seeds of fruit raised at Vancouver. They also used the wild crab- 

 apple and the thorn as stocks for apple and pear trees, and the wild cherry as 

 stock for stone fruits, but did not have the best of success with these wild 

 stocks. They also purchased some apple and pear seeds from settlers who arrived 

 in 1849, and in the fall of 1850 were able to graft 18,000 trees. In 1850 Mr. Seth 

 Luelling (he afterward changed the spelling of his name to Lewelling), a brother 

 of Henderson, arrived from Iowa with a considerable supply of seed and entered the 

 firm of Luelling & Meek. The business grew rapidly. Henderson Luelling went 

 East in 1851 and retui-ned in the spring of 1852 by way of the Isthmus of Panama 

 with a fresh assortment of standard trees, plants, etc. In 1853 the firm had 

 four branch nurseries in operation in addition to the home nursery at !Milwaukie, 

 and had a total stock of 100,000 trees which were salable at one dollar and 

 upward per tree. 



OTHER PIONEER NURSEKYMEX. 



Mr. Joel Palmer also started across the plains _^n 1847 with a stock of 

 growing trees, but failed to get them through. 



Mr Ralph Geer, who also came across the plains in 1847, brought with him 

 a bushel of apple seed and half a bushel of pear seed, and by 1852 he and his 

 sons had made quite a start in the nursery business 



Mr. P. W. Gillette brought from the East, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, 

 an assortment of nursery stock in 1852. 



Mr. J. W. Ladd started in the nursery business at Butteville in 1850 or 

 soon after 



Mr. George Settlemier engaged in the nursery business at Mount Angel early in 

 the decade of 1850-60. 



RAPID EARLY DEVELOPMENT. 



The first fruit grown from grafted trees in Oregon brought almost fabulous 

 prices in California, and fruit-growing and the nursery business developed with 

 great rapidity in Oregon from 1850 to 1860. Nurserymen were enterprising and 

 brought from the East almost everything in the fruit line which gave promise 

 of being valuable in Oregon. In 1858, 1859 and 1860 the columns of the Oregon. 

 Farmer were crowded with articles on fruit-growing, and the cards of nurserymen 

 were numerous in its advertising columns. Among these advertisers were Luelling 

 & Merrick, J. D. Walling, G. W. Walling & Co., J. W. Ladd, Philip Ritz, William 

 Simmons, R. C. Geer, David D. Prettyman, John R. Porter and Daniel Brock. 

 Among other nurserymen then in the State were Henry Miller and J. II. Lambert, 

 who were in partnership somewhere about that time. 



THE FIRST CHECK. 



About 1860 fruit trees began bearing extensively in California, the price of 

 Oregon fruit dropped from its high standard and the nursery business languished. 

 Articles on fruit-growing became rare in the columns of the Oregon Farmer, the 

 advertisements of nurserymen were no longer to be found in it. and finally the 

 publication of the paper ceased. 



In 1860 the retail price of apple trees in Oregon was 10 to 25 cents each, and 

 of pear trees 30 to 75 cents. As the demand for trees declined in Oregon, the 

 nurserymen were compelled to look outside of the States for a market. In the 

 month of March, 1861, a shipment of 6,100 trees was made to Victoria, British 

 Columbia. 



THE TREE-PLANTING BOOM. 



The more enterprising nurserymen began to push sales of trees in California, 

 and by slow degrees the business was built up again, but not on a large scale 

 until the great fruit planting boom began in the decade of 1880-1890. Oregon 



