Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/79



Soil Repair in Willamette Valley 57

1825. This time the agriculturists were British, headed by Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. In March, 1825, they planted potatoes and two bushels of peas, which they probably brought up river from Astoria. In the fall of that year Dr. McLoughlin received overland — ^via the canoe and saddle route of the period — one bushel of wheat, one bushel of oats, one bushel of barley, one bushel of Indian com and one quart of timothy seed. All produced well next season, excepting the com ; this failure was ascribed to cool nights and poor soil. It may be added that this particular location was not well adapted to com ; others in the Pacific Northwest are more favorable.

By 1828 the wheat crc^ had increased to such an extent that it was no longer necessary to import that grain for food ; nor flour, because a primitive gristmill was built that year at Fort Vancouver. Thus we note the beginning of the gristmill business in Old Oregon. The first sawmill had been built there the year before.

Thus beg^n the wheat-raising business, which developed, in the course of more than half a century, to the chief activity of the Willamette Valley, and later, of Eastern Washington. In the Valley, the business left effects which were injurious to the soil and to the life of the community and made necessary its abandonment as the leading industry. In Eastern Washing- ton and part of Eastem Oregon the wheat crop had been pur- sued some thirty years without these deleterious eflfects.

n.

The British gradually extended their farming operations over Old Oregon— to Willamette Valley in 1830; to Nisqually (East of Olympia) in 1833, and to Cowlitz farms (near present town of Toledo) and Fort Colville, about the same time. In October, 1835, considerable progress had been made at Fort Vancouver, as evidenced by the following enumeration: there were 450 cattle, 100 horses, 200 sheep, 40 goats, 300 hogs, 5000 bushels of wheat, 1300 bushels of potatoes, 1000 bushels of