Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/40

34 In the summer of 1847,, of Iowa, brought across the plains several hundred yearling grafted sprouts—apple, pear, cherry, plum, prune, peach, grape, and berries—a full assortment of all the fruits grown in the then far West. These were placed in soil in two large boxes, made to fit into a wagon bed, and carefully watered and tended on the long and hazardous six-months' journey with an ox team, thousands of miles to the banks of the Willamette just north of the little townsite of Milwaukie, Clackamas County.

Here a little patch in the dense fir forest was cleared away with great labor and expense, and the first Oregon orchard was set that autumn with portent more significant for the luxury and civilization of this country, than any laden ship that ever entered the mouth of the Columbia. A fellow traveler, William Meek, had also brought a sack of apple seed and a few grafted trees; a partnership was formed and the firm of Luelling & Meek started the first nursery in 1848. Roots from seedling apples planted at Oregon City and on French Prairie, and sprouts from the wild cherry of the Vicinity, and wild plum roots brought in from Rogue River Valley, furnished the first stock. And it is related that one root graft in the nursery the first year bore a big red apple, and so great was the fame of it, and such the curiosity of the people, that