PRODUCTS OF THE OREGON TERRITORY. 
273 
in England, under the same culture. I have 
grown better, and more weight to the acre, and I 
have cultivated them extensively in both countries, 
more especially in England. 
William H. Sotham. 
The following communication was obligingly 
handed us by the writer at the time of its date ; 
but getting mislaid it was not found till a few 
days since. As the interest excited last winter in 
the Oregon Territory continues unabated, we give 
place to it, and have also appended other matter 
on the resources of this country, gleaned princi¬ 
pally from Parker’s Travels. We have the pleas¬ 
ure of a personal acquaintance with Mr. Farnham, 
and have also read his travels with much interest. 
He is a shrewd observer, and so far as we are ca¬ 
pable of judging, we do not think that he has un¬ 
derrated the Oregon Territory. But we might as 
well undertake to stay the sun and moon in their 
course over the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, as 
emigration to the west by the hardy nomadic 
population of our country; and the shores of the 
Pacific, we have no doubt, will soon become the 
point of attraction for thousands upon thousands 
of hardy adventurers. Irving’s beautiful descrip¬ 
tions of the wild scenes of the Pacific plains and 
valleys, and the sublimities of the snowy peaks of 
the Rocky Mountains, have often made us wish 
to become a wanderer among them. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
PRODUCTS OF THE OREGON TERRITORY. 
New York , May 20, 1843. 
Dear Sir : A reply to your request that I 
would give you a statement of the agricultural ca¬ 
pacities of Oregon Territory, has been so long de¬ 
layed, that I scarcely believe you will find anything 
which I can now write an available apology even 
for my remissness, and much less a satisfactory an¬ 
swer to the strong desires of our country, to know 
whether they may or may not find a golden moun¬ 
tain and a vegetable elysium in that territory. 
I despair more in regard to the latter than in 
the former respect, for I believe that one can 
scarcely put the finger on a date in the history of 
man, when extravagance in the expectations of 
the race was more apparent; so that if I should 
write the mere naked truth, fortified by the obser¬ 
vation of every man who has ever resided a 
twelvemonth in the territory, the desire to prove 
a garden of beauty “ in the far west,” to which our 
restless and energetic countrymen might emigrate, 
would find quite as much reason and truth in the 
dreams of their own wishes, and in the romantic 
representations in Parker’s Travels, and Irving’s 
Astoria, as in any statement which wouldcool the 
ardor of their pursuit after the ideal fig-bearing, 
orange-bearing, grape-bearing, wine-flowing soil of 
the Oregon. 
But as you desire to present the mere truth to 
your readers, the following extract from my trav¬ 
els in Oregon, &c., will answer your purpose. 
In order to obtain a correct knowledge of the 
agricultural capabilities of the Oregon Territory, 
it is necessary to refer the reader to the accounts 
already given of its different sections ; to the bar¬ 
ren valleys of the Saptin and the Columbia above 
its junction with the Saptin; to the account given 
of New Caledonia; and the description of that 
vast tract of deserts dotted here and there with 
habitable spots, which occupies the space between 
the President’s range on the west, and the Upper 
Columbia and the Blue mountains on the east. 
The remainder of the territory, commonly called 
the “ Low country,” is the only portion of it that 
bears any claim to an agricultural character. This 
is bounded north by the Straits de Fuca and Puget’s 
sound, latitude 48 degrees north, east by the Presi¬ 
dent’s range, south by the parallel of 42 degrees 
north latitude, and west by the ocean; seven de¬ 
grees of latitude, and 100 miles of longitude; in 
round numbers 490 by 100 miles, equal to 49,000 
square miles; which is equal to about 31,000,000 
of English acres. About one third of this may be 
plowed, another third pastured. The remainder 
consists of irreclaimable ridges of minor, mountains, 
crossing the country in all directions. To this 
should be added Vancouver’s island, 200 miles 
long by 30 in average width, and Washington’s or 
Queen Charlotte’s island, 100 miles long by an 
average of 15 miles in width; in both which may 
be supposed to be the same ratio of arable pasture, 
and irreclaimable lands, to wit: 1,550,000 of each. 
And thus we have a rough, but I believe, a gener¬ 
ally correct estimate of the agricultural capacities 
of Lower Oregon ; about 12,000,000 of arable and 
12,000,000 of pasture land. The arable land of 
other parts of the territory, it will be recollected, 
is so inconsiderable as to be scarcely worthy of 
mention. There are, I presume, 10,000,000 of 
acres of pasture land in all the region east of the 
President’s range. Thus we have in Oregon Ter¬ 
ritory, 12,000,000 acres of arable country. And 
if we assume the territory to extend from latitude 
42 degrees to 54 degrees north, and from the Pa¬ 
cific ocean to the main ridge of the Rocky moun¬ 
tains, an average distance of 400 miles, we shall 
have a total surfaee of 215,000,000 acres; 
32,000,000, the habitable part, subtracted from 
this, leaves 183,000,000 acres of deserts and moun¬ 
tains. 
The climate of Oregon, also, is unfavorable to 
great productiveness. From October to April the 
southerly winds blow, and bring upon, the lower 
country daily and almost incessant rains. From 
April to October no rain falls; and the exceed¬ 
ingly loose soil becomes so dry, that the grasses 
wither to hay. On the tract lying between the 
President’s range and the Blue mountains, and the 
Upper Columbia, a few storms fall in the winter 
months. During the remainder of the year, neith¬ 
er dew nor rains descend upon it; a brown, cheer¬ 
less waste. But that portion of it which lies near 
the streams, will furnish in winter and summer 
the finest pasture for sheep on the continent. And 
as the weather is too warm in California and the 
