CORRESPONDENCE 69
ley in producing every kind of vegetable, and perhaps will not be inferior to it in the growth of wheat. Oats and barley flourish remarkably well on the poorest lands on the coast. The whole coast country will undoubtedly become one of the finest countries in the world for rearing cattle, horses and sheep, when once its forests are removed 1 and the grasses are introduced. We only want our coast to be occupied with the industrious, enterprising farmers of N. Y. and N. England to make it one of the most desirable countries in the world. The whole coast region is so tempered with ocean spray and timely showers during the whole of the summer months that it is almost entirely exempt from the severe droughts to which the country is so much subject east of the Coast range of mountains.
The general impression has been made abroad that there is little good land susceptible of settlement near the sea board. But I think it will be found that there is about as much good land suited to farming purposes in the vicinity of the mouth of the Columbia as there is in the vicinity of the Hudson River. And bordering Pugets Sound, including Whitby's and other islands, are many fine tracts of very rich land well adapted to agricultural purposes. And perhaps a very considerable tract of the finest, richest land in Oregon may be found on the coast between the mouth of the Umpqua River and the south- ern boundary of the Territory. Indeed, I am informed by those who have traveled the coast that there is not a stream putting into the ocean south of the mouth of the Columbia but affords some good land for settlement.
I have given you these brief facts, hoping and praying that they may come under the eye of many a pious brother, and sister, too, whose spirit may be moved to come over and labor with us in the glorious work of giving a moral and relig- ious character to the thousands of our own countrymen who now people Oregon and the millions who will soon people the Pacific shores. Cannot some of our excellent deacons and praying, working, young married brothers and sisters be in- duced to come and become our fellow laborers in this delight-
