Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/224

218 It is not claimed that there is as great an amount of rich alluvial soil in this section of Oregon as in the valleys north of it. It is rather more elevated, drier, and on the whole more adapted to grazing than to the growth of cereals. Still, there is enough of rich land to supply its own population, however dense; and for fruit-growing no better soil need be looked for. A sort of compromise between the dryness of California and the moisture of Northern Oregon and Washington—warmer than the latter, from its more southern latitude, yet not too warm by reason of its altitude—the climate of this valley renders it most desirable. Midway between Sun Francisco Bay and the Columbia River, what with its own fruitfulness, and the productions of the Wallamet and Sacramento valleys on either hand, within a few hours by railway carriage—the markets of the Rogue River Valley can be freshly supplied with both temperate and semi-tropical luxuries.

The grape, peach, apricot, and nectarine, which are cultivated with difficulty in the Wallamet Valley, thrive excellently in this more high and southern location. The creek-bottoms produce Indian corn, tobacco, and vegetables, equally well; and the more elevated plateaux produce wheat of excellent quality, and large quantity, where they have been cultivated: still, as before stated, this valley is commonly understood to be a stock-raising, fruit, and wool-growing country—perhaps because that kind of farming is at once easy and lucrative—and because so good a market for fruit, beef, mutton, bacon, and dairy products has always existed in the mines of this valley and California.

The placer-mines of Rogue River Valley continued