Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/276

258 were worth their weight in gold. The productiveness of the country in every way was well established before 1853, as may be seen in the frequent allusions to extraordinary growth and yield. If the farmer was not comfortable and happy in the period between 1850 and 1860, it was because he had not in him the capacity for enjoying the bounty of unspoiled nature, and the good fortune of a ready market; and yet some there were who in the midst of affluence lived like the starveling peasantry of other countries, from simple indifference to the advantages of comfort in their surroundings.

The imports in 1852–3, according to the commerce and navigation reports, amounted to about $84,000, but were probably more than that. Direct trade with China was begun in 1851, the brig Amazon bringing a cargo of tea, coffee, sugar, syrup, and other articles from Whampoa to Portland, consigned to Norris and Company. The same year the schooner John Alleyne brought a cargo of Sandwich Islands products consigned to Allen McKinlay and Company of Oregon City, but nothing like a regular trade with foreign ports was established for several years later, and the exports generally went no farther than San Francisco. Farming machinery did not begin to be introduced till 1852, the first reaper brought to Oregon being a McCormick, which found general use throughout the territory. As might be expected, society improved in its outward manifestations, and the rising generation were permitted to enjoy