The First Nursery Trees. 49 
thought—to get gold directly from the soil—would admit the 
second—to get it indirectly, by agricultural and horticultural 
arts—there came a demand for something better than the wild 
fruits of the mountains, better and more abundant than the fruits 
from the mission orchards. At first everything in the line of 
fruit-tree seed which could be obtained was planted. Thus the 
immediate vicinity of the mines soon began to show growing 
fruit trees. But seedlings of any kind would not satisfy the 
planters, and effort was put forth in every direction after grafted 
trees of the best varieties. Oregon had a few years the start 
of California as an inviting field for immigration, and the advan- 
tage also of winning the attention of those who went out, not as 
gold seekers, but as agricultural producers. Oregon had grafted 
trees in bearing, and nursery stock as well, about the time the 
demand sprang up for it in California. Its introduction was 
then, however, of very recent date. Up to 1847 the cultivated 
fruit of Oregon consisted of seedlings introduced by the Hudson 
Bay Company. In that year occurred the first considerable, if 
not the very first, introduction of grafted fruit upon the Pacific 
Coast. The story of that venture has been so often wrongly 
told that it is well to record its interesting incidents in the words 
of one quite near to the event, if not actually participating in it. 
Seth Lewelling, of Milwaukee, Oregon, writes :— 
In 1847 my brother, Henderson Lewelling, crossed the plains from 
Henry County, Iowa, to Oregon, bringing with him a pretty general va- 
riety of grafted fruits. He fitted up a wagon for the purpose, selected 
small plants, and planted them in soil in the boxes, and watered them to 
keep them alive. He told me that in some places he had to carry water a 
mile, up the mountains, to save his trees. When he arrived in Oregon, 
late in the fall, he had something over three hundred plants alive. The 
same fall William Meek arrived in Oregon with a few varieties of fruit 
trees. He and my brother put their stock together, and commenced the 
first nursery of grafted fruits on the Pacific Coast. It was situated five 
miles south of Portland, just below Milwaukee, on the east bank of the 
Willamette River. For want of seedling stock they could not increase 
their nursery much until, in 1850, my brother John and I crossed the plains, 
bringing with us some apple seed, which we planted that winter. We also 
found a gentleman named Pugh, in Washington County, Oregon, who had 
planted some apple seed in the spring of 1850, which had grown well, and 
we bought his stock. During the winter of 1850-51 we put in about twenty 
thousand grafts. In March, 1851, I went to Sacramento, taking with mea 
box of grafts of apple, pear, peach, plum, and cherry, and sold them in 
Sacramento. I believe I have the honor of being the first to distribute 
grafted fruit in California. 
Other Early Introductions--The introduction of grafted 
trees, for sale by Mr. Lewelling in the spring of 1851, was 
quickly followed by other commercial importations, and by ship- 
ments by planters for their own use, so that the plantings of 
1851-52 were quite large. Still there was great doubt as to the 
success of the trees. The late G. G. Briggs, after his great 
