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212 if this should prove to be the case, the mining sections of eastern Oregon and of Washington are to-day sending forth a message to all fruits growers to dry, preserve, and can all their fruits, and they offer even to-day a golden market that must forever consume all fruits so preserved; and I have no doubt but that those who will turn their attention to this employment of preparing fruits, either as dried or canned, must always reap a golden reward for their labors. I noticed at several points that attention was already being much given this species of labor, and the future will prove that the mining sections for dried fruits will guarantee an equally lucrative market for Oregon, that California has proven for her in green fruits in times past.

In point of natural beauty I do not think that the Willamette Valley compares favorably with the smaller but equally well cultivated valley of the Rogue River; but when we see once a magnificent outlet for all the produce of the farmer, and the absence of such an outlet in the latter, we are forced to prefer a home in the Willamette—where Ceres has erected her temple of large proportions, and where her votaries are annually basking in the sunshine of her smiles, her bounteous plenty. In passing through this rich and exuberant country I could not but regret that the donation law that first opened homes to the first settlers of Oregon was as generous as it was in the largeness of its grant—six hundred and forty acres, in other words, was too large a grant for the full and truly healthy growth of any new country. True, it required a great inducement to turn a pioneer colony toward the Pacific so early as '46 and '47; but I verily believe that one half the grant would have brought as many settlers as double the amount has done. The true index, doubtless, of the prosperity of a country might be regarded the ratio of its population to the square mile;