Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/35

Rh arrived in the Oregon Country he should plant them and grow apple trees. The act was noticed and in a spirit of merriment other ladies present from the fruits of the table put seeds of apple, pears, peach, and grape into the vest pockets of all the gentlemen. On their arrival at the Hudson Bay fort at Vancouver the young gentlemen gave the seeds to the company's gardener, James Bruce, who planted them in the spring of 1825. From these seeds came the trees now growing on the grounds of the Vancouver barracks, as transferred to the Government on the disbanding of the company. This story we have from David McLoughlin, the son of Dr. John McLoughlin, Mrs. McLoughlin, Mrs. Whitman, in part, and others.

Mrs. Whitman, in September, 1836, in a letter to her mother, writes of her visit to Vancouver, and her admiration of these fruit trees and their fruits as follows: "On arriving at Vancouver we were met by several gentlemen who came to give us a welcome. Mr. Douglas and Doctor Tolmie and Doctor McLoughlin of the Hudson Bay Company who invited us in and seated us on a sofa. Soon we were introduced to Mrs. McLoughlin and Mrs. Tolmie, both natives of the country, half-breeds; after chatting a little we were invited to take a walk in the garden. What a delightful place it is, what a contrast to the rough barren plains through which we had so recently passed: here we find fruits of every description, apples, grapes, pears, plums, and fig trees in abundance; also cucumbers, melons, beans, pease, beets, cabbage, tomatoes, and every kind of vegetable. Every part is very neat and tastefully arranged with fine walks lined on either side with strawberries; at the end of the garden is a summer house with grapevines."

The apple and the pear trees, and the grapevines from these seeds are yet annually bearing fruits on the grounds of the government barracks at Vancouver. Not long ago