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.