Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/90

 years afterward commended the Luelling nursery as having brought "more wealth to Oregon than any ship that ever entered the Columbia River" (History of Willamette Valley, page 302).

As for the more rapid progress of agriculture in Eastern Washington than in Oregon, the explanation lies in certain natural and man-made differences. Between Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon, the advantage of low elevation is on the side of the former. Besides, Eastern Washington is better watered; the Colimibia River traverses the whole breadth of the country and with its tributaries has cut down the general level below that of Eastern Oregon. Again, the great railroad systems, terminating at Puget Sound, have covered Eastern Washington with a network of lines and branches, while in Eastern Oregon there has been little or no railroad transportation to compare with it. These advantages have stimulated activity as nowhere in Oregon.

Wheat-raising did not bring about the old lethargy of the Willamette Valley; was only a reacting symptom of it. The real reason for wheat-raising there, was the fitness of soil and Summer dryness to such crop; then unreadiness of the old population to change methods of tillage; next, the lack of "new blood" immigration. The easy farming of the pioneers seems to have produced a race of descendants too easy-going. Soil was so fertile and climate so mild that the children of pioneers fell into lazy habits of farming. The new generation and a fresh race of newcomers are pulling away from the old methods. They are restoring the soil and establishing the annual repair method; are cutting down the size of farms and incidentally, thereby trying to reduce the labor problem, have discarded the old idea that Summer dryness necessitates grain growing; are learning how to conserve,