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