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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1878)
October, 1676. THE STATE FAIR. Candor compels us to say that this institution was a miserable failure this year. Whilst the display of veeetahlw cereals, fruits and stock was very fine, what there was of it, it yet lacked com petitors. The same might be said of every department and we do not have far to go to find a reason. Whilst the Executive Committee of the State Ag ricultural Society is composed of some very worthy gentlemen, they do not pay sufficient attention to the wants of exhibitors. For instance, we find Ore gon manufactures crowded into a space ten feet long by two feet wide, whilst a San Francisco firm who desired to raffle off a piano, and to cover the idea of it being a gambling scheme, sold boxes of yeast jiowder and gave away tickets to this raffle, were given one half of the north wing of the pavilion; and an advertising exhibit of paints and venders of jewelry, opera glasses, etc., occupied the other half of this wing. Samples of the actual exhibit of nearly everything contained in the north wing could have been easily accommoiiated in the 10x2 space, whilst Oregon man ufactures should have had the entire north wing and more space if necessary. By furthering every scheme for gam bling purposes and crowding Oregon productions entirely out, the managers are injuring the interests of the society to such a degree that unless they pur sue a different course in the future very little of actual interest will be placed on exhibition at their fairs. The time has come when but very few respectable exhibitors venture to display their pro ductions along side of schemes for rob bing the people. The fair is also held too late in the season, for nearly every year we have more or less rain in October. The ex cuse is that farmers are not done har vesting earlier, but we believe if the fair was properly conducted nearly ev ery farmer would manage to come for two or three days, even if held in Sep temlwr. The experiment is worth try ing. Have your fair last ten days say from the 15th to the 25th of Septcm!cr. Have your trials of speed, but do not allow the sale of pools anywhere 011 the fair-grounds. Crowd out everything from the pavilion that is not an actual exhibit, and rigidly exclude gambling schemes of all kinds. Give every ac commodation to Oregon exhibitors and THE WEST SHORE. your fair will soon 1ms what, with our vast resources and enterprise it should be, the very best State Fair in the United States. OUR INDUSTRIAL kair. With but little preliminary announce ment, the first industrial exhibit ever held in this city, opened on Monday evening, October 21st, and continued for eight days. It was a decided iuc cess and demonstrated what can be done when the people are aroused we must say.howevcr, that it required some vig orous rib-poking on the part of Mr. H. I). Sanlwirn to wake them up. The idea of an industrial exhibit in this city originated with Mr. S., and to him belong! the credit of the immense success it has proven. As u public spirited man Mr. Sanborn has not his equal in this State, and we do not see how our people can ever sufficiently repay him for all he has done and is still doing to make Portland, end in fact the entire State, popular, both nt home and abroad. Now that the ice is broken we hope; that the Industrial Fair will remain a permanent institution. The city owns two blocks of ground near the Court House which they can afford to donate to any association that will take this matter in hand; and now, whilst the iron is hot, is the time to strike. It will be very little trouble to sell .'.,,.. to $30,000 worthpf stock for erecting suitable buildings, and by next year we can have an exhibit which will com- Eare favorably with any State in the fnion. ORKCON PRODUCTIONS. At the late State Fair, lesidcs other articles, we particularly noticed an ex hibit of twenty-six varieties of valuable timber growing in Coos county; it included myrtle, live oak, laurel, etc. Carrots from Clackamas county that produced 1,683 bushels to the acre; corn that yielded i.iS , bushels to the acie; onions that went 1,014 bushels to the acre; rutabagas 37 tons to the acre; lect of the Mangel Wurxcl variety 37 tons to the acre; squashes from Marion county where six of them weighed 1,256 pounds, the largest be ing 237 pounds and the smallest 180 pounds. Lane county showed wheat of the Red Cliff" variety which shows eighty-eight heads, the product of a single grain, lioth Linn and Folk counties exhibited some rare specimens of oats, barley, buckwheat, corn, rye, flax, and sweet potatoes. Of fruits, 39 Multnomah county exhibited apples of the "Glori Mundi" variety that weighed two pounds each, and "Pound Pou-a" mat weighed two tounds each; quinces and other fruits of remarkably large size and fine flavor. Clackamas county also made a remarkably fine exhibit in the fruit line. Hakkk County. The agricultural resources of Baker county are but fee bly developed; as a stock growing country it has 1:0 superior; its minerals should afford an attractive field for cap italists. Judge Stems, in his able ad dress at the linker County Fair, re cently, among other remarks, said: "The mineral wealth, too, of your coun try is hardly proepected. In yomlei mountains, for generations to come, the miner with stoic fortitude will delve, but not in vain, for that treasure that gladdens the earthly heart of all man kind. I,axy, sluggish capital, will come to his assistance as soon as a trans continental railway shall lie established. It will come as sure as the road comet, and the road will come as sure as Con gress shall ever become euergixed with that spirit of justice and fraternity and intelligence that ought In ervade its councils." Oregon has an area of 95,274 square miles and possesses 60.07c.ioo acres of land, only one-sixth of Which, or 10, 000,000 acres, have lieen surveyed. A Wai.i.a Wai.i.a Fammkii. We have in our mind' eye a gentleman who came to this valley a few years ago from Iowa, and took up a quarter section of land. This laud he culti vated, and as adjoining farms came into market he lioiight them up, until now he has 600 acres of the finest land the sun shines on, all encloaed and under cultivation. He has thousand of fruit bearing trees, ami literally has made himself a paradise. All the work on this farm was done by himself and boys, and now the family is one of the most independent in the country. A capital ist pasaing by this farm lately, and after looking it all ovcr,mad an offer of $y an acre for the entire 600 acres. This, i equal to a fortune of 130,000, end alt made by a practical farmer in a period of lew than ten year. The offer wa declined, and the land cannot now be bought for less than $60 an acre, and even at this figure the owner due not care to sell. Incidents like thia goto show the character ef our country, and J mm what we have alwaysjclaimedthat or the clans of men known a "small farmer," there i no better country In. the world. W. W. Statuma.