Rye Grass

Hello there, I'm Nelson Olmsted. Let me tell you how Willamette Valley farmers watch their fields go up and smoke. Here's our Spokesman Corp Pacific Power, Clint Groober. Welcome once again to Stories of Pacific Power Land, a presentation of Pacific Power and Light, the company that has been serving the electric needs of the region's homes, farms and industries

through more than half a century of progress and growth. Now let's listen to Nelson Olmsted with his story for today. The fiddle-willamette valley of western Oregon has surely raised many crops in its history. More than a century ago, the first immigrants broke the sod and sewed rain to feed their livestock and to make flour for their bread.

They planted gardens too, and found that the moist valley would grow corn and many root crops. One early day farmer said, yep, one these days, this valley will be famous all over the territory. Just wait till more land gets cleared.

and there'll be growing things here you never dreamed of." Well, the prediction came true. Apples, pears, cherries, prunes, and other orchard fruits thrived in the Willamette Valley. Buries and grapes found a congenial growing climate there.

As time went by, enterprising men of the soil experimented in many directions. Hop growing was big business in the Willamette Valley for many years. Flacks raising too had its day. By and large, however, the mainstay crops of the Valley have always been grain and hay.

About half a century ago, a few growers in Benton and Lynn counties discovered that certain types of grasses adapted best to the damp soil conditions. And one man observed, you know, that rye grass makes mighty fine hay in these fields.