Page:The Round Hand of George B. Roberts.djvu/5

 side of the Cowlitz River at the portage (just north of present Toledo). The PSA Company, organized in the late 1830s as the agricultural branch of the Hudson's Bay Company, set up its principal tillage site there in 1839–40. The original plan called for eight men, a number James Douglas felt was quite inadequate, but by spring 1839, twenty-four regular employees were scheduled. At harvest time in 1840, forty cradlers were employed to cut crops, and a large number of Indians helped in the fields. During the 1840s, about 1,500 acres were cultivated, and in 1844, for example, the Cowlitz Farm produced 7,000 bushels of wheat, 3,200 of oats, 1,000 of peas and some barley and potatoes. Though the PSA Company's larger flocks of sheep and herds of cattle were located at its Nisqually establishment, when Roberts replaced Charles Forrest at Cowlitz in late 1846, the farm inventory included 1,000 head of cattle, 200 horses, 2,000 sheep and 400 hogs.

Roberts was agent in charge of this large-scale agricultural establishment from the end of 1846 until October, 1851. His Cowlitz Farm journal, a semi-official record, described farm operations from August 23, 1847, through the end of May,