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Fort Vancouver
Cultural Landscape Report |
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APPENDIX B: CULTIVATED FIELD CHRONOLOGY PLANT LIST AND CROPS
| DATE | CROPS | NOTE, SOURCE, FIELD LOCATION |
| 1825, spring | Planted & sowed—potatoes, peas, beans | Imported. Potato fields were planted behind the first stockade on the upper river terrace. |
| 1825, fall | seed received & sowed—spring wheat, oats, barley, Indian corn, timothy | York Factory. Indian corn not doing well. |
| 1826 | planted—spring wheat, potatoes, peas, barley, oats, Indian
corn, timothy harvested—wheat, oats, potatoes, barley, Indian corn, peas |
Wheat imported across mtns. by Company express. Except for potatoes and barley, all 1826 harvest seed saved for spring 1827. |
| 1827 | seed-clover, buckwheat, wheat seed—red wheat, white wheat, oats, barley planted—peas, barley, oats, wheat |
Gordon, Forsythe & Co. Imported on ship "William & Mary" from London. |
| 1828 | planted—wheat, grey peas, early peas, barley, oats, Indian
corn, potatoes harvested—wheat, peas, barley, oats, Indian corn, potatoes |
Harvest "very abundant" except white peas. 1825—1828 location of fields unknown, some were possibly on the bluff near the old stockade, others perhaps on Fort Plain. |
| 1829 | harvested—barley, wheat, white peas, grey peas,
Indian corn (McLoughlin, John Dease, Jedidiah Smith) seeds-clover, buckwheat, wheat |
Location—after spring 1829, principal cultivation area on
"beautiful plain" east of the new stockade. Gordon, Forsythe & Co. |
| 1830 | harvested-barley, wheat, early peas, grey peas, white peas,
Indian corn, oats (McLoughlin) seeds—clover, buckwheat, wheat |
Floods injury growing crops. Except for barley, all crops sown
on 11 July, after water had fallen. So, location
of fields probably below the stockade, nearer the
river and low ground. Gordon, Forsythe & Co. |
| 1831 | harvested—wheat, barley, oats, early peas, grey peas, white
peas, Indian corn, potatoes (McLoughlin) seeds—clover, buckwheat, wheat seeds purchased-"Early Green Pease, Early White Pease, Early White Turnip, Early Yellow Turnip, Dutch Turnip, Lapland Turnip, Yellow Swedish Turnip, Flax, Hemp, Rye Grass, Timothy Grass, White Clover, Red Clover, Early Angus oats, Early potatoe, Winter Wheat". |
Gordon, Forsythe & Co. Seeds purchased from London—Gordon, Forsythe & Co. for the Columbia Dept. |
| 1832 | harvested—wheat, peas, barley, oats, potatoes, Indian corn, pumpkins, buckwheat (George Allan) | George Allan noted, ". . .about 700 acres of land under cultivation."— for Fort Vancouver farm. |
| 1833 | planted-wheat, peas, barley. harvested-wheat, peas, barley, oats, buckwheat (McLoughlin). |
W. Tolmie notes there was ". . . farmsteading which is extensive & placed about 300 yards behind & above the fort." From the "upper prairie", viewing the plain below, he said, " . . . From this part to bank of river is a level plain generally 3/4 mile wide & divided by fences into large wheat & barley or pease fields or broad meadows." |
| 1834 | wheat, barley, peas, beans, corn, potatoes, oats (John K. Townsend, Cyrus Shepherd) | |
| 1835 | harvested—wheat, peas, barley, oats, potatoes (McLoughlin, Roy. Samuel Parker, William Slacum) | |
| 1836 | harvested—wheat, barley, oats, peas, potatoes, turnips, pumpkins, "corn but little" (Henry Spalding) | |
| 1837 | planted-wheat, barley, peas, potatoes (James Douglas) | By 1837, cattle penned at night on fields at Fort Plain to make the "poor miserable dry shingly soil" produce a crop. |
| 1838 | sowed (second crop)—peas, barely, buckwheat, potatoes sowed—100 acres of wheat in Nov. after harvesting above summer crops. (James Douglas) |
80 acres of best crop destroyed by flooding despite Douglas
trying to put up "repeated embankments". Following flood, Douglas
plowed, harrowed and sowed second crop. Fort Plain—a maximum of 457 acres of cultivable land——178 acres poor, 76 acres good and 203 acres subject to inundation. |
| 1841 | harvested—wheat, barley, oats, peas, potatoes
(McLoughlin, Duf lot de Mofras) wheat (George Emmons) Hordeum vulgare, barley; Avena sativa, oats; and Secale cereale, rye. |
Location—Vancouver, Nisqually, & Cowlitz. Emmons noted that adjoining the Fort a small bed of wheat was sown as a sample. Crops observed by Brackenridge according to C. Pickering. |
| 1842 | white wheat and yellow wheat | Received by Russians—origin uncertain, either Vancouver or Cowlitz. |
| 1843 | wheat (McLoughlin) | oats and wheat harvested at Mill Plain (Thomas Lowe) |
| 1844 | wheat, peas, oats, barley (McLoughlin) barley, tares, clover, potatoes, cole seed |
Crops planted on Fort Plain in vicinity of stockade according to 1844 map (within current FOVA study boundary except for cole seed which was east of current boundary). |
| 1845 | wheat, peas, oats, barely (McLoughlin) timothy |
M.T. Simmons testified that the fields in the immediate vicinity of the
fort were "laid down principally in timothy". Joel Palmer noted that a three mile stretch of the "prairie along the river" had been abandoned for cultivation due to flooding which washed away the fences there too. |
| 1846 | wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, peas
—240 acres planted in turnips & colewort
(James Douglas, Peter S. Ogden) seeds—clover, buckwheat, wheat |
Gordon, Forsythe & Gordon, Thompson & Co. |
| 1846/47 | Dugald MacTavish later testified 500 acres of farm "under
fence" on Fort Plain at time of 1846 treaty. 1846 Covington farm map and 1844 Peers map indicate 120 to 220 acres under fence on Fort Plain. Dugald Mactavish later testified 200 acres was cultivated with wheat or other grain and the remainder was planted in timothy and clover, very little of which was under fence. Company inventory lists 8,362 yards of fence adjoining the fort. Witnesses said there was more land in cultivation than, was listed on inventory, but it was not listed. | |
| 1847 | wheat, peas, oats, barley, potatoes (J. Douglas, and Ogden) | |
| 1848 | wheat, peas, oats (Douglas and Ogden) | |
| 1849 | timothy | William Crate noted the Company had sown "a good deal of land above and below the fort with timothy grass. |
| 1850 | wheat (Ogden) | HBC compensated for 8 acres of wheat and considerable fencing in a meadow north of fort where the U.S. Army to build officers' houses (current Officers' Row). |
| 1851 | wheat, oats, barley (Ogden) | |
| 1852 | wheat (John Ballenden) | Ballenden leased 3/4 of garden, "the upper half of the field
immediately below the fort," two fields north of Upper Mill
Road, and a piece of ground bet. the new army barracks and the HBC's
barn, to Col. Bonneville for one year. Ballenden complained to Simpson that during the last few years, not more than 100 acres, excluding the Mill Plain, had been cultivated. |
| early 1850s | oats | Oats grown in field east of school houses. |
| 1853 | grain timothy |
Ogden reports yield "good". Dr. Henry Tuzo reports that by 1853 2,000 acres on Fort Plain and Lower Plain enclosed and sown with timothy grass. |
| 1854 | seeds—clover, buckwheat, wheat | Gordon, Forsythe & Gordon, Thompson & Co. I.N. Ebey reported that since the treaty, in the vicinity of the grist mill and saw mill, "cultivated land and enclosures have been reduced to about 1,000 acres. . .". From 1853-54 on, harvests reported as losses. |
| 1855 | oats | Floods in June put all of Fort Plain under water and threatened oat field. |
| 1855—1859 | Farm reported losses. | |
| ca. 1858—59 | potatoes | William Crate testified that just before the Company left, that the Army took possession of the last potato field-possibly the field directly south of the fort where potatoes indicated on 1844 map. This area noted as "public pasture" on 1859 military map. |
| 1860 | At time of departure, HBC cultivated 2 fields east of fort, approx. 50 acres. In front of stockade, 2 small enclosures with 12 acres. |
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Last Updated: 27-Oct-2003