“Up to the present time fully nine-tenths of the emigrants going to the Oregon Country have settled in the Willamette Valley--a very large and fertile valley, probably seventy or eighty miles long by some ten or twelve in width. It is flanked on either side by ranges of heavily timbered hills, and traversed by the large Willamette River, which is fed by numerous streams issuing from the adjacent mountains on its course northward to join the mighty Columbia. The climate is remarkably mild and entirely free from extremes of temperature; and its very fertile soil produces small grains such as wheat, oats and barley, in great abundance. Vegetables of every kind grown in the temperate zone do remarkably well, while fruits such as apples, pears, plums and cherries are not only raised in great quantities, but are generally superior to the same varieties in the Atlantic States. Fish and game are also quite plentiful. Since the discovery of gold in California, that region has been an excellent market for everything raised at fancy prices; if this condition continues, the Oregon farmers will soon be more prosperous than the California gold miners.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
To preserve the juice of cherries, plums, peaches, and similar fruits, proceed as for jelly, but adding to each quart of juice half a pint of sugar instead of a quart as for jelly. If it is not desired to have the fruit juice transparent, the pulp of the fruit may be pressed to extract all the liquid.
Sources: The passage is from Ezra Meeker, Kate Mulhall : $b A romance of the Oregon Trail, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Parloa, Canned Fruit, Preserves, and Jellies of 1887, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — oxblood cloth, pear stamp.