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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1880)
May, 1880. THE WEST SHORE. '3' from the wholesale dealer! In San Fran cisco and put down on our wharves at prices ranging all the way from twenty to forty dollars per thousand, exclusive of freight, for which, on an average, live dollars more may be added, Port land and Pugct Sound broom manu facturers commonly pay about thirty dollars per thnusaiuUfor Michigan bass wood handles, and forty dollars per thousand for those made of ash, painted and varnished. Car loads of these ar ticles are constantly 9H route across the continent as slow freight, while ship loads come around the Horn. Con signed to San Francisco dealers, the price goes up another notch before they are utilized by Pacific Coast manufac turers, and to make all even, wc pay high prices lot brooms to sweep our Doors. Now all this unnatural and in sane business is tolerated by our peo ple, as it has been for years, while we have plenty of white cedar, ash, alder and maple growing in our forests, and hundreds ol available water powers in almost every valley, where such woods could be turned into broom-handles. Allowing that it would cost as much to manufacture a good article here, as is paid for imported handles, it would be sound wisdom to pay such prices, Or even higher rates, and thus scatter the money among our own people, than send it abroad to cater to the prosperity of Eastern factories and princely trans portation companies. As it is, how ever, hundreds of thousands of dollars go, every year, from Oregon and Wash ington Territory for the one article of brooms alone, either ready made, or for the raw material. But the greatest monstrosity is yet to be recorded. Ship loads of the finest specimens of our native woods are sent out of the Columbia River and the Strait of Fuca to San Francisco, and t hence re-shipped to the same forts in the shaft of broom-handles ! Thu by every such transaction, the Padfl Northwest is enriching California by paying the cost of two distinct shi incuts, in viihs a round sum for manu facture. I low long this suicidal state of thing is to exist, it is not in OUf humble province to say. We have faithfully and pcrnistctitly interviewed our most popular and intelligent DTOOm manufacturers on the subject, bat in vain. They can give us no well grounded reason for the strange anom aly. Should any disbelieving Thomases read this article, they have only to re pair to our wharves on the arrival of steamers and sail vessels from San Francisco, to become thoroughly and lorever convinced as to all we have as serted on this subject. llroom-handlcs made from " Port Orfbrd cedar," is an item that largely figures upon freight ists from San Francisco to the Colum bia river and Pugct Sound ports. The ikl saw of "sending coals to New- istle," loses its significance when con trasted with the broom-handle absur- 1 it v of this coast. We have said that broom-makers could give us no satisfaction on this picstion. Driven almost to desperation for a solution of the problem, we ap pealed, the other day, to a wooi working machinist, lie informed us that very peculiar, and, withal, expen sive machinery, was required to turn wood into " elongated cylindrical forms." This was enough. Wc left his presence iustanter, comforting our selves with the lively hope that some Connecticut clock peddler or Yankee whittlcr might, one day, in the dim future, stray into our midst and remove this unsightly stain from the escutcheon of our local commerce. Hut enough of this for the pretenl Phe broom-corn question is not quite so rampant, but it is well worth Inves tigating. A dealer informs us thai most of the broom-corn manufactured in Oregon and in the Sound country is raised in Sacramento county or valley and costs liom live to m cents pc pound. 1 his article is put up in 1111 wieldy bales, measuring about tin feet by four, and weighing from H to too pounds. A ton in weight, ol broom-corn, is equal to about seven tons freight measurement. Hence, it will be seen thai it is rather an cspcu live commodity to import as a raw ma terial. Prom atich freight bills .1 in hive been permitted to examine, II WOUld appeal that our dealers pa from $15 to $25, freight money, on two thousand pounds of broom -corn Iran San Francisco to Portland and the various Sound ports, making the whole cost of a ton in weight of this staple from $125 to $130 or $i.o. Highly apropos to this subject, wc arc reliably informed that a prime ar tide of broom-corn can be raised in Walla Walla county, Washington Tcr ritory, ami that any quantity could and would be raised if the formers there had sufficient encouragement to cm bark in the enterprise. If broom-corn can be raised in Eastern Washington, then it can be just as well or better aised in Eastern Oregon, say, any where south of The Dalles. Thus, it will be seen, that we have abundant means for supplying, without going OUl of our borders, all the requisites of in important branch of home Industry! md instead of sending away Immense sums of money for these materials, they ould and should be produced here and shipped abroad as we ship lumber, grain, wool, and other products of our soil. ADULTERATION or POOD, IV win. 1. WABt, m. 11. The above caption is not itrlctt) ap plicable to the in tii Us of which we propose treating in this paper, but as they are considered as Constituting food, in popular parlance, we have so used the expression. It is perhaps fair to stall OUl with the proposition thai the majority of all articles in the grocery line arc nunc or less adulterated, some of litem with substances harmless in chill'ilclci, and only used because of their cheapni others, with mixtures highly injin i-ni -, if no! positively poisonous, in ibcir ef fectsinthe human stomach. The i"p- ular belief ill regard to food adultera tions is thai they can only be deti -i li .1 by skilled experts, or by chemical anal ysis, with cosily apparatus. The It nth is that most of the forgeries on our stomachs can be dele, ted by very sim ple means, and with appliances to be found in every household. Tea Is used almost universally, and almost nevel free from foreign matter! Willow, ami Various other kinds of leaves, ate the most harmless additions, (J rem leas contain spent tun, sand, dillcKllt kinds of earth, sulphate of lime, Prussian blue. gum, etc. Illiick ten -lonlnin much the same, ilb plumbago instead of Pin lhui blue. Test . : Put some lea in a porcelain cup, and pour on boiling Water, If then is a dark ling at the height of the fluid, it shows artificial coloring matter. If the leaves are really tea, they should unroll. Pour on to pa per, nnd any sand may he detected. Weigh and burn a small portion; if the ashes weigh over five per cent., the lea