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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1880)
February, i8do. THE WEST SHORE. 39 streams. None woulil take the hills except for pasture. Now the new comers, who had to choose the hills, have the better farms. Meanwhile, in the Willamette and other valleys, west of the mountains, where the prairie and bottom lands were first chosen, the long spring rains have delayed the plough, and the rapid summer growth has begun to produce rust, but on the well drained hdls the second choice farms are proving to be the best. The lesson of such experience is, that, under the forests of Western Oregon and Washington, and on the high prairies of the upper Columbia basin, which extend through Oregon, Washington and Idaho, are to be the surest and most abundant harvests, and future homes of the people. The large stock r; ing way to the on-co farmers with their pi and arc seeking new pastures among the i and herds arc driv quarters, or divided i be kept within the farms. The questioi no fence law agitate munitics, and becom appeals to the legis courts. Settlement denser and more con The farmer in his master of the situatii will win the ground The process may bc is very large, north, south and east, but farms and pasture and woodland will touch each other ere long; bouses will stand in sight along the road lines, and little villages and school-houses and church spires will dot the landscape for many scores and hundreds of miles. In the treeless regions of the interior, the orchard and timber culture, as well as the wheat and vegetable culture, have been tested and found feasible and profitable. The water supply increases in the regions called rainless, by culti vation and by orchard and shade tree planting. The inconveniences of the present are deemed only temporary. THE nF.LATIVH VAI.UK OP FARMS EAST AND WEST OK TIIK CASCADE MOUNTAINS. This question now taxes the best judgment of the old settlers. Form erly every family hastened to the Wil lamette, the Umpqua, or the Rogue river; or to the lower Columbia, or Cowlitz, or Chehalis, or to the Puget Sound basin. Latterly the sons and daughters and their families, and often their parents, are seen moving cast of the moun tains. Their western homes are sold at good prices to new comers. Immigrants in large numbers for the last three years have sought for lands in the upper Columbia basin. Wheat culture has doubled in a year, and quadrupled in four years there. Railroad awd steam boat lines offer means of transport to meet the new demands. The great ill ill of Donu lation is ill ii wu 'PI..... are rewarded and satislied with the re sults. The climate is good, and with ....... j. ut .MIIUII IIWlll ! I ..,,,,. Htv, the Snake river is $8 per ton to ship at Portland. By team to the Snake river the cost averages not less than $5 per ton. This extra cost of $13 per ton, exceeds the cost of exporting wheat from the valleys west of the Cascades about $S per ton, on air average, or about twenty-four cents per bushel. Return freights of machinery, goods, fuel, lumber, etc., have a similar excess of cot. New railroads will reduce this margin somewhat, but transport!! tioir to arrd from distant Interior towns and settlements to ship must alwaya Ire a large factor 111 the expense of farms and homes. As compensation for this loaf, the upper Columbia farmers claim a large gain in the ease of raising all kin. I of crops, and the greater yield per acre, and a more sunshining sky. The farmers of the prairies and valleys west of the Cascade mountains, on the other hand, claim greater advantages, in the abundance of fuel and timber at hand at small cost; the endless number of springs and streams and opportunities lor water supply from wells at little cost; with the added facts that crop, are always sure; that wheat on the hills yields well; that greater variatv ofcropt, like vegetables and fruits, eair be raised at a profit, near the shipping port, which would no! bear freighting from the distant fields of the upper v oumiDia. The Willamette and coast farmers also claim that the loic.tts will soon be worth more than the Dralrla lands. m for acre; that small farms, with a vari ety ol erops, as haV.trraln. flax, vabata. hies, fruits, wood, lumber, wool, beef, swine, fowls, cheese, all of which will find every year, at paying proHttbie than lam 'stock tanches. They 'cat will be a drug on rail in price very near ing it and shipping It. dv Costinir tMlnun - vninvii is they receive from the udent Airmen prefer to ell tilled fields wall Is in good trim; pas- lots ol best L'radeh of id sheep; good houses, , with abundant stores Iter from storms for all II at band, everything Ming a little to the dailv income. They U.iow that .11 ....... slant gains amount -.'o more per year, net, than a few large wiles of beef or wool or wheat will do. Very often a man on a few scores of acres will hawa more cash at the close of the year, than the man who tries to till several hun dreds of acres. Resides, the smaller farms ulit. ,..!. ely of products raised by the joint labor of all the family keep them busy at all Mil . m asous. i neae items might be ex- tended, but they indicate the factors which go to make up the true homo fauns, and rural settlements ol our northwest. OHJKt'TION, The clearing of our heavy forests, which on an average can be done ready for the plough at less than $100 ptf acre is deemed a bar to fanning west of the mountains. It j 0 to the man who merely aim to raise thou.