Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/221

Rh of social and substantial happiness and wealth be added to and quickened by an impulse that is healthy in itself, and which aims at and desires healthy avenues of investments. Should such a branch mint be established, Portland would doubtless claim the site; but whether it be there, at The Dalles, or Walla Walla, is not a subject upon which there should be any feeling. Let us have it at one of these points; and if there is any one point where arguments could be adduced to determine the matter to the exclusion of the others, that point is at Walla Walla. For it is here whence the greater bulk of gold dust must flow; and if not here, then at The Dalles—the great Golden Gate of the Upper Columbia.

Desiring to see a section of the country through which I had never passed we took the stage from Portland to Sacramento, which at the end of the first day's journey brings us to Salem—where I determined to lay over a day to visit the woolen factory, and observe the characteristics of the place. The ride through the Willamette from Portland to Salem is pleasant and refreshing,—large and well-tilled farms, orchards of great proportions, with their trees ladened with the golden fruit—peaches, apples, and pears, in most profuse abundance; neat and well-trimmed gardens, where the poetry of horticulture bespoke the appreciation of the owners of well-tilled acres. The style of farms, buildings, barns, and outhouses were all in good taste, and indicated the extent of means of the farmers of Oregon. The orchards of Oregon during the past twelve years have proven to be a source of golden wealth; nor is their value in the least diminished by the large amount of fruit being now raised in California. Many have asked where Oregon would find a market for her orchards when California should produce her own fruit, and though it is more than doubtful whether California will ever rival Oregon in the growth of apples, yet