THE ILLIISrOIS F^HjMER. 



291 



earn broadcloth and linen, and save our fam- 

 ilies the trouble of making soap. 



The subject of food is intimately connec- 

 ted with that of civilization and the onward 

 progress of the human race. The famine in 

 Ireland, caused by the continued disease of 

 the potatoe, has proved a rich blessing to that 

 country. Since the Irish peasant could no 

 longer be fed upon a single and coarse arti- 

 cle of food, both he, and Ireland herself, have 

 made greater progress than they did in the 

 whole century preceding. 



In the annual Address, delivered at the 

 Fair of the State Agricultural Society, in 

 1S55, the Orator of the day, with the hand 

 of a master, drew a picture of early times in 

 the west, when many a farmor was content 

 to cultivate but ten acres, raising upon that 

 single field, year after year, an ill-tended 

 crop of corn. The food of his family consis- 

 ted of two articles oul}'- — "bacon and corn- 

 do J gers J' 



That race, at least in Illlinois, has long 

 since piisscJ away. But should a specimeu 

 of that breathing fossil yet linger upon this 

 side of the Sfi/x, you will find him opposed 

 to any improvement in the fodder of his 

 household. He fir:nly believes that rail- 

 roads, Agricultural Societies, and Free 

 Schools, are ruining our sucker State, every 

 acre of which has already been trebled in 



value by those institutions. 



liiiUFFDALE, Green County, 111. 



Fruit Growing in Oregon. 

 Marion Co., State of Oregon, ] 

 April 25th, A. D. 18.59. | 



Editor Illinois Fanner : — 3Iay I occupy 

 a space in one of the numbers of your "Far- 

 mer ?" The subject of my remarks may not 

 be immcdiatidji jicrtinent to the science of 

 Pomology in Illinois ; but, to amateurs or 

 Pomologists of our country at large, all in- 

 formation, concerning fruit growingj any- 

 where, is interesting. Many of your Illi- 

 nois readers may one day, be fruit growers 

 in some of the beautiful green valleys of Or- 

 egon. The people of the East-ern and North- 

 ern States supply the European market with 

 excellent green apples, for which they re- 

 ceive remunerating prices. The people of 

 Oregon, must, in like manner, supply the 

 markets of California, Australia, Sandwich 

 Islands, and China, with luscious fruits, pe- 

 culiar to this country. 



And here I would remark, that the science 

 of Pomology and farmiuf^ must all be learn- 

 ed anew, in this most singular climate and 

 soil. As soon as the Traveller reaches the 

 South Pass, and, like us, turns his face to 

 the East, and with deejj emotion exclaims, 

 "My native land, adieu," he perceives a 

 marked change in the phenomena of na- 

 ture. And, as he advances westward, with 

 the streams wliich flow into the mighty Co- 

 lumbia, ho still perceives the great changes 

 in nature. Arrived in Oregon, he finds a 

 large and diversified countr}'-, interspersed 



with tall, snow-capped mountains, extended 

 valleys and little hills or huttes, as they are 

 commonly called here. He may have been 

 told that irrigation would have to be resorted 

 to here in raisin;i; fruit trees and siarden ves:- 

 etables. But such is not the case in Oregon. 

 In California, all fruit trees and garden 

 plants must be irrigated to ensui-e any suc- 

 cess in their growth or future life. On all 

 the different soils of Oregon — four in num- 

 ber — apples, peas, plums, gooseberries, cur- 

 rants, cherries, (and in some cases, peaches) 

 can be raised in abundance, and of the very 

 hcf,t quality. A few men, some ten or twelve 

 years ago here, turned their attention to 

 fruit growing. Their trees were partly seed- 

 lings, and partly grafted and budded fruit. 

 They generally planted in pits or holes dug 

 in the ground after the fashion of the East- 

 ern people. 



They had tolerable success, and their or- 

 chards soon made for their owners little for- 

 tunes; as the apples sold for ten dollars per 

 bushel at home ! Soon experienced men 

 went into the nursery business, and procured 

 genuine sorts from the States; and cor- 

 rected many spurious sorts here, and now 

 fruit 2;rowin;' in Ore^jon has become the bu- 

 siness of this country. The plan of planting 

 trees in pits is abandoned here, and fruit trees 

 are set on the top of well pulverized land, 

 manured and banked up, and general success 

 is the result. The same varieties do not sac- 

 eecd on all of our different soils and locations. 

 Our hill lands are red and are strongly im- 

 pregnated with oxide of iron. Our valley 

 land^ are generally a deep, black, vegetable 

 loom — clay subsoil — moist and very mellow. 

 Our gravel lands are a mixture of gravel, de- 

 composed rock and vegetable mould, and for- 

 ming some of our bottom lands. They are 

 very productive. The soil on the mountains 

 is black, rich and moist, having the growth 

 of the low bottomlands — elder, alder, maple, 

 raspberries, wild currants and wild gooseber- 

 ries ! The climate is variable here accord- 

 ing to the altitude, more than the latitude. 

 During i\\Q excessivclyhard winter, ]\x.st pa.ss- 

 ed here, snow never laid thirty hours on the 

 ground at a time where I live ; which is on 

 a low fertile bottom, ten miles east of the 

 Willamette river, on a mountain stream ; 

 while in from ten to twenty-five miles east of 

 us, and nearer the slopes of the Cascade 

 mountains, snow lay from one to five feet 

 deep from six to twelve weeks, and is yet 

 glistening in the sun, and tlie air even down 

 here is yet chilly! A person can pass in 

 two or three days travel here, from smiling 

 green valleys, ripe fruit and waving grain, 

 to cold frosty nights, gulches with snow from 

 five to one hundred feet deep, and a cold dry- 

 atmosphere ! Hence you can see that fruit 

 will succeed here, commonly grown in the 

 United States from Tennessee to Canada. — 

 The July Bough succeeds here only on our 

 low, warm bottoms. The Winesap, White 

 Winter Pearmain, Esopus Spitzenberg, Yel- 

 low N. Pippin, Blue Pearmain, Fall Pippin, 

 Grravenstein, Tulpehocken, Rambo, Ohio Fa- 

 vorite, Waxcen, llawles' Janet and Fall 

 Queen succeed well on our bottom and hill 

 lands. Northern pears succeed well on the 

 various locations here as far as tried. Our 

 summers here are not very long nor hot; 

 spring and fall, however, blend most delight- 



fully with our summers here. The Wash- 

 ington, Jefferson, Coes' Golden Drop, White 

 Egg, Smith's Orleans, Green Gage and Co- 

 lumbia Plums succeed here finely. We are 

 sometimes annoyed here with late frosts in 

 the Spring, which injure the fruits and often 

 kill some of the fruit trees. Apple trees 

 bear here at two or three years from the 

 graft, and pears from two to four years ! At 

 present prospects were never better for a 

 fruit crop in Oregon. I have 1800 fruit 

 trees under cultivation. For two years we 

 have eaten of the luscious fruits of our own 

 raising ; and this year we will probably sell 

 enough to pay the first cost of our trees — 

 8SU0. A thorough knowledge is requisite 

 here, of the chemical analysis of our various 

 soils, in order to ensure permanent success 

 in Pomology. There is a lack of lime in 

 most of our soils here ; and trees, which re- 

 quire limestone soil, will not succeed here, 

 unless supplied with ashes and bone dust. — 

 The Green N. Pippin, Ladies' Sweeting, and 

 Baldwin, as a general thing, fail here. Some 

 varieties succeed well on certain locations 

 and fail on others. But very few varieties 

 succeed well everywhere. I do not know of 

 any orchards planted out here more than 800 

 feet above the level of the Willamette river. 

 I have no doubt, however, but that certain 

 northern varieties of fruit can be successfully 

 reared on the mountains here, 1800 feet 

 above our low vallies. What is remarkr.ble 

 here is, that our fruits are generally long 

 keA'pcrSj while in California, their late keep- 

 ers pre only fall apples 1 The G. N. Pippin, 

 llawles Janet, Ilomanite, Tulpehocken, 

 Esopus Spitzenburg and Winesap, with 

 proper care, will remain sound and good here, 

 till new apples are fit for use ! Several va- 

 rieties of Pears here will keep well, till the 

 1st of May. The apples here, as compared 

 with those in the States, are very large, and 

 the quality is the admiration of all who taste 

 them. The same holds true of our pears, 

 plums, gooseberries and cherries. Grapes 

 succeed here admirably, and are becoming 

 quite common in Oregon. The science of 

 Pomology, however, is only in its infancy 

 here ; but yet enough is known to convince 

 all that Oregon is one of the best fruit grow- 

 ing sections in North America, and that the 

 business of fruit growing will always " pay" 

 here. 



I find the study and practice of Pomology 

 the most pleavsing of any branch of science, 

 to which I have ever turned my attention. 

 I hope that a large accession will be made to 

 our present number of fruit growers in Ore- 

 gon, and that the various experiments going 

 on here in Pomology, ivill receive marked 

 attention. A Fruit Growers' Society is al- 

 ready here, and a monthly paper, called "The 

 Oregon Farmer," is devoted to the interests 

 of fruit growing and farming in Oregon, and 

 is published in Portland in this State. Will 

 you exchange with the Editor of the Oregon 

 Farmer? 



I have thus run on in a string of rather 

 scattering remarks, in my letter, and those 

 remarks may not be as acceptable to your 

 readers, as I might wish. The heads of my 

 remarks might occupy twenty pages of com- 

 mon writing paper, if well written, and the 

 subjects only glanced at. To my old ac- 

 quaintances in Illinois, who are farmers and 



