THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 63 



At about the time the colonies were beginning their struggle with the 

 mother country for independence, Franciscan monks were establishing 

 missions in California. To these they brought seeds of fruits, grains, 

 flowers and vegetables, as several historians of the missions tell us, and 

 as the trees found by Americans a few decades later make certain as regards 

 fruits. It is probable that by the close of the Revolutionary war all sub- 

 tropical and temperate fruits of Europe were to be found cultivated in 

 the missions of California. Among these, in an enumeration of the products 

 of the missions, the cherry is listed by E. S. Capson.^ From its introduc- 

 tion at approximately the close of the Eighteenth Century, the cherry con- 

 tinued to be cultivated, at times more or less sparsely to be sure, until, 

 by conquest in the war with Mexico, California passed into the possession 

 of the United States. A new era in horticulture began in California soon 

 after the influx of gold-seekers in 1849, some of whom, noting the oppor- 

 tunities of fruit-growing, at once began the importation of seeds and plants. 



Modem fruit-growing on the Pacific Coast, however, began in Oregon. 

 The California Argonauts of '49 were much too busily engaged in digging 

 gold to think of getting it indirectly by titling the soil, whereas the men 

 who were then crossing the plains from Missouri or sailing around the 

 Horn from New England to Oregon were home-makers and true tiUers 

 of the soil. These early Oregonians were the forerunners in the zeal and 

 enterprise which have made horticulture on this coast the marvel of modem 

 agriculture. But one of the several early horticulturists of Oregon can 

 be mentioned here, he deserving special mention by virtue of his work 

 with cherries. 



Until 1847 the few cultivated fruits to be found in Oregon were seed- 

 lings mostly grown by employees of the Hudson Bay Fur Company. In 

 that year there was a notable importation of cultivated fruits across the 

 plains — a venture which quickly proved pregnant with results in fruit 

 harvests which have not ceased and give promise long to continue. 

 Henderson LeweUing crossed the plains from Henry County, Iowa, and 

 brought with him a choice selection of grafted fruits. These he transported 

 in boxes of soil which he hauled in a wagon drawn by oxen. Arriving 

 in Oregon late in the fall of 1847 he found that he had 300 trees alive which 

 he planted at what is now Milwaukee, a few miles south of Portland on 

 the east side of the Willamette River. Later, seeds were brought for 



1 History of California ill. 1854. 



