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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1881)
January, 1881. THE WEST SHORE. remarkable facilities and advantages that extend to droves of cattle and horses and flocks of sheep. The hills and valleys that invite the labor of the husbandman and so faithfully promise rich rewards are rivalled in value by the grasses of the Eastern Oregon up lands that ofler pasturage to a thousand flocks and herds. Why, with all these advantages at command, cannot Oregon he pronounced incomparable among the States, and be looked to as the fu ture seat of wonderful wealth and un failing prosperity? As the facts be come known and the conditions that characterize this and other States draw their own parallel, why should we not expect steady immigration of enter prising and adventurous men to perfect our greatness and build up our institu tions? In addition to the natural products of the soil, so easily realized by effi cient cultivation, we have wonderful resources that await development which cannot come in our day but promises rich rewards to the enterprise of the future. The sooner this development commences the better for Oregon. When the time shall come that in ad dition to the domain of agriculture and its unfailing rewards we add the full development of the various mines ol precious metals, iron, copper, lead and coal, and the utilization of our forests, this region will resound to a commerce that shall attract the world and teem with industries that can rival the results achieved by the artisans and toilers of the Eastern hemisphere. The vision of greatness belongs to the future, but its foundations arc in the present and are for us to lay strong and well. The prosperity of the pres ent producer will lead to the work shops, mills and factories, and greater enterprises of the future. We go be fore to establish society and cement it with law and sound principle; we build the school house to mould the coming age; we sow the teed that will ripen in the field that shall wait for harvest ers. We win our children an nn equalcd country and a wonderful fu ture. It it no mere vanity and affec tation to say and believe that we have a country of unequalled advantages, for where is its rival? Through all the States of the Union there it not one where tuch unvarying prosperity has resided for the past decade, or that promise so much for the decade to come. If the agriculture of a country pros pers its other industries cannot fall far behind. Where else in the United States have the farmers, for many years past, thriven as well as here? We know that many talk of "hard times," but the farmers of Oregon have had no such struggle for existence as have the farmers of the East. We would impress on the minds of all, the fact that the future belongs to us as well as the present. We should per fect our system of agriculture as care fully as we would our laws, and avoid faults in one as well as the errors in the other. We should, as nearly as possi blc, preserve intact the soil's capacity for production and take pride to retain for our acres their well deserved repu tation as carefully as wc would trans mit to the dumb animals we raise, the best qualities that belong to their race. OUR STATE. Oregon is geographically divided into two separate and distinct parts, by the high range of the Cascade moun tains running across the State from north to south, as much unlike each other in climate and general physical characteristics at can lc. The climate of Eastern Oregon is dry, with long, dry summers, generally accompanied with quite warm, but not sultry weather. The winter season is short, usually of not more than four or six weeks dura tion, and quite cold, with but little snow, however, except" on the moun tains. These general peculiarities of climate are the tame that exist through out all that region of country extend ing from the Rocky mountains to the Cascades or Sierra Nevada, and from Mexico to British America. They are modified in some placet by the prevail ing winds and mountain ranges, and depend in measure for the variations of heat and cold throughout its entire extent to the degree of latitude, al though this last it not an Index in all cases of the severity or mildness of the climate west of the Rocky mountains. The northern part of this region, com monly known at the great plain of the Columbia, hat a climate almost as mild, and far more salubrious and even in the distribution! of heat and cold, than the middle or southern part. While the heat of summer in the valley of the Humboldt is almost tropical in its se verity, the frosts of winter are only a trifle loss severe than those of the Co lumhia. The constant westerly winds coining from the warm waters of the Pacific mollifies to a wonderful extent that which would be without them, a climate equal in severity to Minnesota or Montana, and gives to Eastern Ore gon and Washington Territory a tern periituie as warm in winter as that of Southern Virginia, and as cool in sum. mcr as that of Canada. The mean animal temierature of Eastern Oregon varies considerably with different localities depending in a great measure on the altitude above I ho level of the sea. For Instance, on the summit of the lilue Mountains mow falls to the depth of ten or twelve feet, and everything is locked up in winter five or six months ol the year; while in the valleys and in the lower altitudes there is scarcely any snow, and winter lasts only a few weeks. In these last the highest range of the thermometer is about 90 deg., very rarely It goes to loodeg.jtho lowest it about 10 deg. The menu annual temperature of the Dulles is 5J. 79; at Walla Walla, 54. J5. The highest monthly mean tempera ture during a seriet of years was 74 leg.; tho lowest, 3a deg.; the highest daily mean, 86, deg.; the lowest, a a deg. Eastern Oregon is now of easy ac cess by water and rail from all points on this coast. Hut a little while longer and the Iron roads and locomotives will connect the Eastern World and the waters of the Columbia. Then at the travel and trade of half the world passes over the (J rent Plain of the Co lumbia, its grand scenery, and clear, bracing iitmosphcro arc destined to at tract the tourist and invalid from every land. Even some of the " slang phrases of the day have a legitimate origin, " Putting your f out in it," is certainly not a very elegant mode of expression, but, according to Asiatic Kcscarchct It it quite a fine point of law; when the title or hind is disputed in Illndoatan. two holes are dug in the ground and used to lncac a limb of each lawyer (?), and the one who tires first lusct his client's case. Taney if you can, some of our famous "liuiUof the law" pleading in such a manner? it it gcncially the client who "putt hit foot in it." The rainannuafly carries to the earth quantity of nitrate ami ammonia equivalent to three pounds per acre.