APPLES 



65 



SuMMEB Pears — Bartlett, Early Butter. 



Autumn Peaks — Seckel. Flemish, Fall 

 Butter. 



Winter Pe.-vks — Winter Nellis. 



Cherries — Royal Anne, Black Tartar- 

 ian, Black Heart. May Duke, Kentish. 



Pe.\ches — Crawford's Early, Crawford's 

 Late, Golden Cling. 



Gr.\pes — Isabelle, Delaware, Concord. 



Also Siberian Crab Apple and Orange 

 Quince. 



In this connection it may be stated that 

 the first peaches in the Willamette valley, 

 so far as now known, were grown from 

 pits brought across the plains to Oregon 

 in 1844 by Rev, Edward Evans Parrish. 

 who came from Ohio. 



Greer's Apple and Pear Seeds 

 Ralph C. Greer, already mentioned, 

 started to Oregon from Knox county, 

 Illinois, and deserves a place in connec- 

 tion with any mention of early fruit 

 growing in Oregon — that is, the original 

 "Oregon County." He brought with him 

 one bushel of apple seeds and half a 

 bushel of pear seeds. These went far 

 towards supplying this coast with trees. 

 He supplied Luelling with stock and Lu- 

 elling supplied him with buds from his 

 "Traveling Nursery"; thus both were en- 

 abled to furnish cultivated trees in great 

 numbers at an early day. 



Wliifnian Apple Trees 

 Regarding the "Whitman apple trees" 

 in Walla Walla valley, it is the current 

 idea in many quarters that there were 

 fruit trees there at an early date, but in 

 my opinion there is no foundation for 

 that view. I have heard it stated that 

 Whitman brought apple seeds across the 

 plains in 1836. I do not think that was 

 so. It is probably true that he brought 

 garden seeds of various kinds, as men- 

 tion is made of numerous garden products 

 — corn, vegetables, wheat, squashes, etc. 

 — hut I have never found any mention 

 of fruit growing at the Whitman mis- 

 sion at any time in any one of the 50 or 

 more letters written by Mrs. Whitman 

 or Dr. Whitman between their arrival 

 at the point selected for their mission 

 station — Wai-il-at-pu, six miles west of 

 the present city of Walla Walla— Decem- 

 ber, 1836, and on October, 1847. In a 



letter dated October 22, 1842, Mrs. Whit- 

 man alludes to receiving a keg of fresh 

 apples from Vancouver, and also ex- 

 presses a wish that dried fruit might be 

 sent out from the East. On April 2, 1846, 

 reference is made by Mrs. Whitman in a 

 letter to buying dried berries from Indi- 

 ans. To my mind these references indicate 

 that no apples were grown at the mission. 

 Of course it is possible that there might 

 have been seedling trees there, secured 

 from Fort Vancouver, which had as yet 

 not begun to bear, and that it is these 

 trees that have been referred to in later 

 years. Rev. Cushing Eells acquired the 

 Whitman mission site early in 1860, and 

 started to that point from Forest Grove, 

 Oregon, on March 10, 1860, arriving 

 there 16 days later. The conditions he 

 found are described but no mention is 

 made of fruit trees. From the foregoing 

 you can readily see why I am in doubt 

 about any early apple trees in the vicin- 

 ity of the site of the Whitman mission. 



Early Orchards on Pnset Sound 



The early orchards in the Puget sound 

 basin, that is, prior to 1854, as a rule were 

 supplied with stock secured at the Lu- 

 elling & Meek nursery at Milwaukee. I 

 know of one exception, however, and 

 there may be others. My father brought 

 with him from Illinois a quantity of ap- 

 ple seeds, and we arrived at our destina- 

 tion, four miles east of Olympia, October 

 21, 1853. He removed from his tempo- 

 rar.v location to his permanent home on 

 November 9th following. The seeds he 

 brought were planted in boxes that month 

 and set out the following fall in rows, 

 and a year later grafted. A nursery was 

 established at "Eden Farm," near Cow- 

 litz Landing — (in the vicinity of Toledo, 

 Wash., of today) — by Edward D. War- 

 bass, in August, 1854. He got his stock 

 from Morton M. McCarver's nursery, two 

 miles south of Oregon City, Ore., and Mc- 

 Carver got his start from Luelling & 

 Meek. In September, 1854, Hugh Patti- 

 son began the nursery business on "Wash- 

 ington Plains," six miles east of Steila- 

 coom. Pierce county, Washington. He se- 

 cured his stock from Henderson and Seth 



Lewelling. Milwaukee. 



Geo. H. Himes 



