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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1881)
January, 1881. THE WEST SHORE. 11 great cheese milkers of Monterey, nt a cost of $1,750, and that over fifty ap plications to breed cows to him at $40 per head had been rejected. The milk of the llolstcin cattle is prized chiefly by the cheese-makers, and although I have eaten some good cheese made in this State, yet I do not know of the im portation of any llolstcin cattle up to date. My -good old friend, Capt. John C. Ainsworth, one of Oregon's most suc cessful business men, was asked one day what it would cost to build a steam boat of two hundred tons. " That would entirely depend upon the trade in which she was designed to run," was his answer. " It takes powerful and costly engines to run some steamers," he continued, "while others can be navigated with vc.-y cheaply built hulls and comparatively defective power." It is just so with cattle-breeding in Western Oregon. Your means will not allow you to begin with anything but good American cows of no preten sions to select breeding, and then you must improve upon by selections of blooded bulls. Hence you must breed according to your location. And be particular always to breed upwards when you do breed, whether you pro duce for the dairy or the shambles. I am told every day that dairy Tann ine don't pay. that it is a great deal of work for a very little money, next to none at all. Hut here is my argument upon the proposition : A day's work is a day's work, is it not ? Well, one man can work as hard as another, if he will. Now, then, we come to the joke of the cream. If men can get rich and keep their carriages in the western counties of New York state, with but ter at an average of fourteen cents, the year round, by pasturing and feeding cows upon lands worth from $60 to $200 per acre, what is the reason won't pay in Oregon ? Here our lands go as high as $6ox:rucrc,mit there are thousands of unoccupied acres yet to lc had ut.the Government price; and here butter will average thirty rents the year round. There is not a store in my town where you may buy a roll of but tcr for less than a dollar, since the 51I1 of Novcmlier, and I would hale to lct that the rolls would average two pound. look forward to an increased inter tit in dairying business in oicgon, whenever sullicicnt capital can be got hold of to establish u beet-sugar f.ictoiy in the Wilhime.ttc valley. After the beet pulp has been boiled in the sugar vats, there is still left a large residue of fattening matter, which the searching chemistry of nature alone can extract. Commit this, therefore, to the stomach of the milch cow, and let her, or the stall-fed ox, consume what man's inge nuity has failed to reach. It takes capi tal to start it, but there are huge divi dends for those who attempt, it. And there is very little land in the Willam ette valley but will produce two hun dred bushels of beets to the acre. If these could be sold to a beet sugar fac tory at forty cents a bushel, it is a bet ter reward for the farmer's industry than wheat at $1.50 percental. And in the mean while Oregon s larmers could grant a Sabbath to some portion of her soil and let her fertility be born anew. TUK Ol.lt HONT.r.KS. A few years ago the emigrants cume toiling across the sage plains, marking with broken pieces of wagon boxes the graves of those who were not strong enough to withstand the privations and hardships of the six movth's journey with ox teams, or who fell victims to a savage foe. It was a marvelous under taking, but "they were brave and true as stern crusader clad in steel." Mnilc utruiiK with hic lliey iUiciI tu ilu, Achievement! ihnl a hint lo lny Would linger al, Maiul lark ami irrl, Ikfciiletl at I he lliilil of it. When we consider that the l'acilic coast was then an almost unknown re gion, and the dangers and har.lships to be encountered in the pilgrimage across more than half the continent, we can not but admire the spirit of the old pio. necrs who led with their rilles on their shoulders, the vanguard of civilization We may carefully examine the history of the American continent, hut we shall nowhere liud another record like this. Those were indeed, days that "tried men's souls," hut those at the front were strong and resolute, ready for the work liefure them, and to them Itclongs the honor of bringing the far western territory under the protecting egis of the American Union, and of laying the foundation of a State des tined to tnke place 111 the front twV of the National itcrhood. We can well remember when the IV otic coast was a howling wilderness : when the grey wolves held their nightly concerts in tho hearing of our iliin homes, and tho red-men rode their "tireless cuitans" over our wido meadows, and even sometimes failed to espectour rights, to our melon and tur nip patches J when wo ground meal upon the codec mill, luxuriated on sorrel pic, and talked about the opening of a new horse trail, or the felling of h foot-log over some insignificant creek as an important Internal Improvement. Hut in tho marvelous march of civilisa tion the Pacific Northwest has become an Important portion of the American Union, containing yet undeveloped the elements of almost incalculable wealth and prosperity. As wo enjoy tho ad vantages of a civilization which has fol lowed in tho footsteps ol tho old time leaders, we should not forget our duty to those who fought the early battles for us ; whose courage and cnterprixo first sought and claimed the wild hut beautiful land, so far remote from tho old hive of civilisation. Alasl how many of those who c.ime in the early days "gather no more in the councils of their brethren." Many of them lie where they perished from excessive toil, where they were lost amid the snows of the mountains, or where they fell In fierce conflict with a savage foe. Others have since faded away from our sight in the glow of a hrightercivili.ation, How many thrill ing stories have Wen buried with their authors? Much of tho history of the past "with those bent with years, is fast perishing unrecorded, Irretrievable." Let us not be slow then to gather from them the historic traditions of the early days, and learn to treasure the memory of the Intrepid leaders us we seo crum bling to dust around us the lust rem nants of their handiwork ( for eie long wo shall all he covered by the colli 11 lid, and the cold page of history will hear at best but a oor record of the trials and hardships of the Old Pioneers. You may say what you please about it, but there is luck in horse-shoes. A woman nailed one up against the wood, shed a rfionth ago, and last week her husband eloped with the hired girl. The man had not carnqd, a $ for more than two year.