Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/89

Rh considerable, and his exertions for the interest of the company were untiring. Our journey may now be said to be at an end, and we are now in the Wallammatte Valley. I have been here near three weeks, having left my waggon in charge of the teamster and proceeded on horseback from Fort Hall in company with some thirty persons, principally young men. Your first question now will be, "how are you satisfied with the country? Is it worthy of the notice that Congress has given it?" I would answer these in the affirmative. Perhaps there is no country in the world of its size that offers more inducements to enterprise and industry than Oregon. The soil in this valley and in many other portions of the territory is equal to that of Iowa, or any other portion of the United States, in point of beauty and fertility, and its productions in many articles are far superior, particularly in regard to wheat, potatoes, beets, and turnips. The grain of the wheat is more than one third larger than any I have seen in the States. Potatoes are abundant and much better than those in the States. I measured a beet which grew in Doctor Whitman's garden which measured in circumference two inches short of three feet, and there is now growing in the field of Mr. James Johns, less than a mile from this place where I write you, a turnip measuring in circumference four and one half feet, and he thinks it will exceed five feet before pulling time. Indeed, everything here is in a flourishing condition—trade brisk and everybody doing well. The emigrants generally are all, as far as I know, satisfied. Wages for a common hand is from $1 to $1.50 per day, and mechanics from $2 to $4. Wheat is quite abundant and sold to ship or emigrants at $1 per bushel. Flour is from $9 to $10 per barrel; potatoes and turnips fifty cents per bushel; beef from six to eight cents per pound; American cows from $60 to $70; California, from $15 to $20. The prairie is coated with a rich green grass, perhaps the most nutritious in the world; and I am told that the winter is never so severe or the grass so scarce that a poor horse will not fatten in the space of one month. Nothing is wanted but industry to make this one of the richest little countries in the world. I say little, because the fertile part of it is small compared with the very extensive fertile countries in the valley of the Mississippi; yet we have a country sufficient in extent and resources to maintain in lucrative occupations millions of inhabitants. Its great hydraulic power immediately on the seashore, the advantages for stock grazing or wool growing, its fertile soil and indeed, its very isolated situation from competition with the rest of the civilized world, all combine with other circumstances to make it one of the most desirable countries under the sun for industry and enterprise.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. M. McCARVER.

Hon. C. A. Dodge.