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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1882)
February, 1882. THE WEST SHORE. land, 60 per cent, of which is ad up ted to agricultural purposes. The sales, from Nov. 12, 1879,10 Dec. 31, 1S81, amount to $340456.63, the larger portion being sold for cash at a.6o per acre; probably not more than 15 per cent, of this amount was sold on the instalment plan of five payments, ex pending over a period .of four years, at $4.00 per acre; 7 per cent, per annum interest is charged on deferred pay ments. ; The Railroad Land Office is located at Cheney, Spokane county. This coun ty originally contained about 1,260,000 acres of railroad land, and 90 per cent, is good wheat land. There were 607 sales made in this division in 1SS1, amounting to 115,503 acres; about 55,400 acre was sold Spo knne county, principally near the head waters of Hangman, Pine and Rock creeks on the southeast side of the rail road, and Deep and Crab creeks on the , northwest side. The population of this , county is increasing rapidly; four years ago the white population in this por- tion of Stevens county, now Spokane, did not exceed 300. In September 1881, the school superintendent in this county reports 1,700 white childnn of suitable age to attend the public schools. . The newer portions of the agricultu ral lands of this diviion that have been . settled upon and cultivated during 1S80 arid 1881, have proved to be as produc- tive as the older portion of Walla Walla Columbia and Whitman counties, which : arc so well and favorubly known as wheat, oats, barley, flax and vegetable producing lands. The samples of grain on exhibition in the land office at Cheney, from all parts of the division tabled and placed ide by side, show that the grain raised in Spokane county not only in length of straw, size of head, plumpness of kernel, hut the yield per acre, will compare favombly with that raised on the best wheat land east of the Cascade mountains. Over 5,000,000 acres yet remain to the com pany between Wallula and Lake Pcn! d'Orcillc, fully one-third of which is saleable at much more than the prices above named, notwithstanding its re motencs from the thickly settled part of the East, and notwithstanding the aparseness of population on this coast Were the company so disposed there would be no difficulty in selling to cap italists all of those lands in a body at $3.60 per acre, but as such a sale would result in a land monopoly, hindering the rapid settlement of the region and thereby operating to the detriment of the road, such a transaction is not likely to be considered. It is not premature to advise people who are likely to want such lands at the present rate to use some diligence in the matter, for, al though we arc not advised as to their ntention8 it would seem that the rapid movements of the company, the exten sive operations of construction indica- ing the early completion of the road, the financial stability of the concern and its ircrcasing traffic, atlord some ground of probability that the price of hese railroad lands will be increased. The Pend d'Oieille division is complc ted and in full operation, so that this favored region is accessible to any point of its entire length along the road in comfortable warm coaches.' These laud sales began about the time" that construction of this division was com menced at Alnsworth under direction of General Superintendent Sprague, in 1879, in November of which year the company opened a branch othce in Colfax, the county scat of Whitman county, and then sold land to settlers until in June, 18S1, when the road was built as far as Cheney, and the office was moved to that point. L. T.' Darin, Esq., Register at the Oregon City: Land Office, furnished the following: The 6tnte of Oregon is now divided into five land districts, viz.: Oregon City, Roscburg, Lakeview, LaGrande and The Dalles, the local United States land offices for said distticts being sit uated respectively in the above named towns. The Oregon City land district originally the Willamette land district, embraced prior to March 3, 1853, (at which date Washington Territory was organized) all the land in the territory of Oregon, said territory prior to that time, embracing all that part of the territory of the United States which lay west of the Rocky mountains and north of the 43d parallel of north lati tude; now comprising Oregon and the territories of Washington and Idaho, covering an area of over 251,000 square miles of land. The Oregon City land district now embraces all the land south of the Columbia river to the 3d stand ard parallel, and wcM of the summit of the Cascade mountains to the Pacific, containing an area of about seven mil ion acres. The counties of Clatsop, Columbia, Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Yamhill, Benton and Linn, with the exception of a few acres in- the southern part 'of the two Litter, fire entirely sltUntcJ In. this district. About two-thirds of the and embraced herein has been sur veyed, a great deal of which is yet' un s settled. Lands lying near navieable rivers and railroads, have, of course, been first selected by settlers; and per sons who desire to settle upon govern ment land in this district, should not expect to find locations nearer than the foothills of the Cascades and Coast ranges of mountains. However, by reason of cancellations and relinquish mcnts, tracts of land may be obtained in any part of this land district. There arc a vast number of acres of vacant government land in the counties of Clatsop and Columbia, the soil of which is very rich and fertile, but heavily timbered. In fact the land in this dis trict remaining unclaimed, is generally covered by forests of fir, interspersed with hemlockcedar, cottonwood, oak, pine, alder, maple, ash and various species of trees of less value. Fire have at different times raged furiously in the Cascades and Const ranges of mountains, partly consuming the tree for miles In extent, and thus leaving . the country in some places comparative ly open ; this is especially the case on the west side of the Coast range. ' Water of the purest quality is everywhere abundant, and range for stock In the foot hills, excellent. During the year ending December 31,' 1881, two hundred and fifty six homestead entries aggregating 35,593 acres, and 188 pre emption declaratory statements' under section 3359 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, covering 34,638 acres of land, have been filed in this of fice; 144 claimants have made final proof in their homestead claims, cover ing 17,821 acres, for which final receipts entitling them to patents, have been issued; 45,420 acres of land, In which arc included pre-emption claims,' tim ber entries under the' Act of Congress approved June 3, 187S, ami excesses in homestead applications, have been sold for cash at $1.35 and 12.50 per acre, the rate depending upon the location of the land. A numberjfof certificates have