March, 1879.
Willamette valley he will find .1 fcv.
prairie sections from two to twenty
miles square, like those of the Mis
souri valley, but the soil is of a lighter
color resting on clay, und is less invit
ing to the eyes than the black loam of
the Western prairies. His ideal of
huge farms or open lands into which
lie can put the plough and run furrows
one or two miles long the first year
and gather the harvests, is not met.
Even the treeless plains of-Eastern
Oregon and Washington are much
broken up by present or former water
courses. The outlook is rough. Work,
patience, time, energy, and the outlay
of cash, are needed to make farms here,
as well as in the Middle and Eastern
States. These plain facts destroy the
poetic ideas of the new immigrant,
lie, also, becomes dissatisfied with the
mild rains of winter and dry air of
summer. The woods and mountains
seem too dark and rugged, and the
rivers and bays too densely fringed
with forests for him to penetrate, and
too deep amid the canyons for him to
enjoy their isolation. In a word, the
I'acilic Northwest is not the interior
northwest of his imagination. It is
not the paradise of which he is in
search. It is a country for hard work,
economy, courage and enterprise, every
day and every month in the year. It
is a country in which the farmer must
use his pencil and keep his account
book, of the cost of every acre and its
income; the gain or loss on every ani
mal; the expense of raising of every
ton of his harvests, whether hay, oats,
barley, wheat, corn, vegetables, or
Iruits, and the expense per mile of
transporting them to the markets of
the world. If the immigrant Is not
prepared to study these questions, or ft.
"ot willing to make these close calcu
lations of profit and loss, item by item,
be mistakes the resources and advanta
ges of Oregon.
HIS SKCOXD MfSl AKK
Is an adverse opinion formed on a
wrong standard of judgment. It is a
fact that the exports of flour, wheat,
and other cereals, from the Columbia
river increased annually per tent,
for ten years from 1869. It is fact,
that the value of the average annual
production ol tho State per person, is
$80 .rcckouii.g the population at 1 ;o,
oou and the value of all the products
at $12,000,000. Counting the number
THE WEST SHORE.
of voters at 30,000, the average is $ oo
per man.
It is a fact, that the products of Ore
gon and Washington can be annually
transported to the markets of Europe
from our seaports several dollars
cheaper per ton than the products of
the Mississippi valley can be trans
ported from the lake or river ports of
that interior. It is a fact, that the cost
of carriage to our seaports is less than
the cost of carriage to their lake and
river ports.
It is a fact, that the farmer in wes
tern Iowa and Nebraska can not afford
to raise corn or wheat for distant mar
kets, while it is a fact that the wheat
and Hour from Oregon and Washing
ton are sent to Europe, Asia and Aus
tralia, in annually increasing tleets of
ships, It is a fuct, that the farmers of
the interior west can and do uH'ord to
sell out their estates and buy improved
farms in Oregon and Washington at
an advance upon current rates, and
that the limit of profit upon these
yearly exchanges has not yet been
reached. It is a fact, that our soil and I
climate have not failed of a fair har
vest of the cereals, vegetables, or fruits,
for thirty-one years, us the writer can
testify from his own olmervatiou. The
farmer can take bis homestead, or buy
his land in the interior east of the Cas
cade mountains, and transput his grain
on the Columbia at $6 per Ion to the
ship, or $8 per ton from I.cwiston,
Idaho, pi miles, handling it six or
eight times, which is at the rate of 18
to 25 cents 1 ii' 1 bushel, and do his own
carting to the river at the rate of 3 to
21 cents per bushel, according to the
distance from the landing, and receive
a dollar jcr bushel on a yearly average
at the ship. Eastern Oregon and
Washington lands will, if properly
tilled, give a ton of wheat cr acre.
Or, the farmer can choose the wood
lands of the Willamette, lower Col
umbia, Cowlitz, or Chehalis, or 1'uget
Sound basin, near tide water ami ship
navigation, aud clear, fence, plough and
sow these lands at an average of $25
to $100 per acre. For example, If it
cost 18 cents per bushel, or $r to trans
porr a ton of 33 bushels to the ship,
this is equal to the interest on $00 per
acre, and $8 per ton is equal to Dm in
terest of $80 per acre.
It is possible by rotating cropi and
good cultivation to raie 50 bushel per
acre of wheat. This has been done On
the hill lands of Clackamas county.
It is possible to raise in these valleys
J5 10 350 bushels of potatoes per acre,
which range from 25 cent to $1.10 per
bushel at the ship. Fowls, eggs, but
ter, cheese, fruits, and many other edi
ble products of the garden and the
farm, are easily raised and transported
to market. The English, (icrman,
Welch, Scottish, Swedish, French and
Italian farmers and gardeners, soon
make rich farms and comfortable homes
in these valleys. They are eager ro
get the title to these line forest-covered
lull lands. A lew acres cleared, sup
port the family, while the balance of
tb timbet and wood land increases in
value every year. With these facts
wellknown to residents here, the ad
verse opinion of the new comer and
his hasty departure, will not only prow
his mistake, but his loss, as it has prov
ed the great sacrifice and loss of many
others, who have come and staid a few
mouths or years, and then returned to
California or the Western States, and,
finally, made their home on the I'acilli
Northwest, tired and disgusted with
their frequent removals clsewbeie.
The wise thing fill the immigrant is to
study all these fact! and figures before
he starts, then if he decides to come,
let him settle down to the haul work
of making hi home here and be will
succeed.
1 -,, I m
DRKWf VAI.I.KV.
This valley is pleasantly situated
miles west Irom I.ukcvicw, Eakr ('.,
Oregon It is twelve milcsjjn length,
with a varying width of one to three
miles. It affords excellent pasturage
for great numlmsof slock, both winter
aud summer. About one-third of the
valley consists of swamp land, very
valuable for the hay which thry pro
liii-, while the remainder is dry.
I)icw' creek courses the length of
the valley and affords an abundant sup
ply of water for tock, winter aud sum
mer. The settlements arc not exten
sive, yet many flue homes can Ik found
in Drew's valley. Stock-raising is the
principal occupation of the coplc, and
the glasses ol the valley aie purlieu
larly adapted therefor. Farming ha
not yet been attempted, thrrcfori BO
positive expression as to il adaptability
for Ibis purpose can be given. T)c
valley abounds in all kinds of gaiito and
the stream warm with the fiotst of
trout. Magnificent forest aurrotald the
valley, and a saw milt i bmlly needed,
a improvement are sadly retarded on
account of the expense of bringing
lumltcr from a great distance.