After leaving the Santaam, a prairie commences, of from four to twelve miles in width, which continues up the valley for a day's travel, which I suppose to be about forty miles. The mountains upon the east side of the Willamette are covered with timber of quite large growth. In this last prairie has been found some stone coal, near the base of the mountain spurs; but as to quantity or quality I am uninformed. The specimen tried by a blacksmith was by him pronounced to be good.
The Willamette valley, including the first plateaus of the Cascade and Coast ranges of mountains, may be said to average a width of about sixty, and a length of about two hundred miles. It is beautifully diversified with timber and prairie. Unlike our great prairies east of the Rocky Mountains, those upon the waters of the Pacific are quite small; instead of dull and sluggish streams, to engender miasma to disgust and disease man, those of this valley generally run quite rapidly, freeing the country of such vegetable matter as may fall into them, and are capable of being made subservient to the will and comfort of the human family in propelling machinery. Their banks are generally lined with fine groves of timber for purposes of utility, and adding much to please the eye.
The Willamette itself, throughout its length, has generally a growth of fir and white cedar, averaging from one-fourth to three miles in width, which are valuable both for agricultural and commercial purposes. Its banks are generally about twenty feet above the middling stages, yet there are some low ravines, (in the country called slues,) which are filled with water during freshets, and at these points the bottoms are overflowed; but not more so than those upon the rivers east of the Mississippi. It has been already observed that the soil in these bottoms and in the prairies is very rich; it is a black alluvial deposit of muck and loam; in the timbered portions it is more inclined to be sandy, and the higher ground is of a reddish colored clay and loam.
The whole seems to be very productive, especially of wheat, for which it can be safely said, that it is not excelled by any portion of the continent. The yield of this article has frequently been fifty bushels per acre, and in one case Dr. White harvested from ten acres an average of over fifty-four {100} bushels to the acre; but the most common crop is from thirty to forty bushels per acre, of fall sowing; and of from twenty to twenty-five bushels, from spring sowing.
There is one peculiarity about the wheat, and whether it arises from the climate or variety, I am unable to determine. The straw, instead of being hollow as in the Atlantic states, is filled with a medullary substance, (commonly called pith,) which gives it firmness and strength; hence it is rarely that the wheat from wind or rain lodges or falls before harvesting. The straw is about the height of that grown in the states, always bright, the heads upon it are much longer, and filled with large grains, more rounded in their form, than those harvested in the eastern part of the Union. I have seen around fields, where a single grain has grown to maturity, forty-two stalks, each of which appeared to have borne a well filled head; for the grains were either removed by birds, or some other cause. As it was November when I arrived in the country, I saw wheat only in its grassy state, except what had escaped the late harvest.
The farmers have a white bald wheat, the white bearded, and the red bearded, either of which can be sown in fall or spring, as best suits their convenience, or their necessities demand. That sown in September, October or November, yields the most abundantly; but if sown any time before the middle of May, it will ripen. The time of harvesting is proportioned to the seed time. That which is early sown is ready for the cradle or sickle by the last of June, or the first of July, and the latest about the first of September. In the Oregon valley, there are but few rains in the summer months, and as the wheat stands up very well, farmers are generally but little hurried with their harvesting.
The emigrants usually arrive in the latter part of the summer or fall, and necessarily first provide a shelter for their families, and then turn their attention to putting in a field of wheat. In doing this, they frequently turn under the sod with the plough one day, the next harrow the ground once, then sow their seed, and after going over it again with a harrow, await the harvest, and not unfrequently gather forty bushels from the acre thus sown. In several instances the second crop has been garnered from the one sowing. When the wheat has stood for cutting until very ripe, and shattered considerably in the gathering, the seed thus scattered over the field has been harrowed under, and yielded twenty bushels to the acre, of {101} good merchantable grain. I was told of an instance where a third crop was aimed at in this way; it yielded but about twelve bushels to an acre, and was of a poor quality.
The rust and smut which so often blast the hopes of the farmer, in the old states, are unknown in Oregon, and so far there is but very little cheat.
Harvesting is generally done with cradles, and the grain threshed out with horses, there being no machines for this latter purpose in the territory.