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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1882)
W April, 1882. THE WEST SHORE. 65 ROGUE RIVER SALMON. The salmon of Rogue river are stil plentiful, and have a world-wide renuta- tioa for their superior quality. Rogue river is the only stream in Oregon and : nrbab,y on tne whole coast, that has two distinct runs of salmon. The spring run begins about the 1st of April, and ends in July. They are the iattest and most excellent salmon in the known world. They , are caught in drift and set nets, and never school in sufficient numbers to justify the use of a seine in their capture. The fall run begins about the 1st of September, and continues to the 1st of November. They appear in large schools and are caught altogether with seines. As many as three thousand have often been landed at one cast of the seine. OREGON BEACH LANDS. There are thousands of acresof sand- t:ach in Oregon, which in time can be reclaimed and made available for pas turage purposes. To do so will require money to be expended and labor to be performed. It requires seven or eijrht years to reclaim these lands, and that is probably the reason that no one has undertaken it. The system of reclam ation is to sow yellow lupine, which in a few years produces a fair and durable so.I. In the meantime the shrub affords good browsing for cattle. The lupine should be sown first with barley, during t.. rainy season; the barley comes up first, and checks the drift of the sand by its rank and heavy stalks. Lupine grows slowly at first, taking very deep root; the second year after it is sown it is hardy enough to take care of itself, a-d begins to spread rapidly, and soon weaves an almost impenetrable net work over the sands, and creates a rich rr.ould by the decay of its leaves. On t!.e coasts of France miles upon miles of L:nd so reclaimed are now bearing crops c f vegetables and cereals. This system 1 is become very popular on the sand 1 'lis about the harbor of San Francisco, rid many beautiful gardens have there ( ken the place of barren dunes. Take ; 4s coast and institute a similar proccd 1 e, and a few years to come would find ,' od farms along the now desolate I sach. .Three hundred industrious girls can 'ad employment as house servants in Je city of Portland at wages ranging . om is to $30 per month. WILD FOWLS OF COOS BAY. There is perhaps no portion of Ore gon that affords greater inducements to the lover of wild-fowl shootinir than Coos bay and its tributaries,' and it is a lucrative employment to thoMj who follow it for profit. The lontr bnv is fed by Coos river and a dozen large and small sloughs, all of which abound with birds and fish. Isthmus slough has been the best of all these resorts in past years, but the march of improvement is encroaching upon the hunter's orivi leges; yet, the extensive mud flats about the mouth of Coos river and many other places allord much amusement for the sportsman. It is remarkable that the great variety of wild fowl, embodying almost all the various species found on the entire Atlantic const, is compressed in tne compass of Coos bay, Here, first is found the trumpeter swan the cygnus buccinator of Audubon. These great birds are not so plenty here as on the Columbia river. They are a mag nificent bird, of snowy plumage though their flesh is coarse, and often of a fishy flavor. Next to the swan in size, bin far more abundant, comes the Canada goose, commonly known in this vicinity as the "honker:" this species of coose t ' B is by far more plenty here than the black-breasted grey goose, so common in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, California, and the Willamette and; Umpqua valleys, Oregon. The honker comes in here from its 'summer pastures in Alaska, to find a genial clime in the loner protracted winter a i months. The canvas-back duck, set down by Wilson as anas valisnera, is the choicest of the duck family, and is often seen on this bay. Its favorite food is wild celery, which it procures by diving, and wherever this grows on the bottom it quickly finds it. This duck is of fine flavor, hence it is that this bird is much more palatable on this bay, the Columbia river and Puget sound, than on the bay of San Fran- cisco.J About Olympia, on Puget sound, it is very destructive to young oysters, from which it acquires a splen did flavor. The mallard it a common visitor to these waters in fact this duck is a genuine "web-foot" hatch ing and rearing its young in Oregon. ts tender flesh and rich flavor render it a erood roastintr bird, while the por alist ; it is an arrant glutton feeding on snails, frogs, and everything else eatable that falls in its way. In the Willam ette valley it is quite destructive to late wheat fields. The widgeon is a prettily-mottled gray duck, with a bald pate and gray spots on the back of its hend. It fli?s in law fWks, and falls an easy prey to the gunner, as it is not rapid on the wing. Like the Canada goose, it is graminivorous in its food, and its flesh always affords good eat ing. The green-winged teal is to be found in all parts of Oregon; it takes more to the fresh-water lakes, but is frequently found on the snlt marshes; it is rapid in flight, has a beautiful plum age, and its flesh ranks next to trie English snipe. Broiled for breakfast, with a slice of tonst, it Is delicious. THE FRUIT CROP. Fruit growers say that prospects for a very large fruit crop in Jackson county are most promising. At this date, last year, many almonds and peaches were in bloom and. con sequently, were badly damaged by frost while, at present, buds are only begin- ing to swell and bloom will be to late that the crop will hardly be caught by frosts. A very large number of trees and vines have already been set out this spring and fruit-riiisincr rrm to have a new start. In a few vcart thit industry and wine-making, so long neg lected, will be One of the most Imnnrt. ant in Jackson County. KLICKITAT LANDS. i The land I vine in Klickit.it rnnntv west of Wallula, which for so long a period has been considered wnrthle.a except as a cattle range, is now described at oeing me very ocut yielding or wheat lnnd. And there i rush to that locality. From a party who it familiar with it, we learn that most of the claims located. are em. .... ' oraccd in a small territory commencing about four milct from Wallula, running back tome ten or eleven miles, and dis tant from Umatilla landing ten milct, and from the nearest point on the Ya kima river about eight mile. The soil it heavier than that lying between thit place and Dry creek, and it covered with the finer growth of bunch grass, with occasional wild pea vines and small sage brush. The country it generally level, the few ravines running across it beintr annrnarherl tiv irntt lnnn ren dering farming easy and practicable, while many of them afford water in a distance of three or four feet. Partiet who have been back further from the river than the land dew-riheri rennrt thiit there it a larte ImhIv at lnnd in that re. 1 , -------- 0 .-. - - ... ...... - - irinn that i tillul.la anI ik.i th. i. " " wv, aim uiut iiiw null 1 eeout preen and dun nlumace of the heavier, ulih .nrfi-. in r I r .... . ...... nw. awt-v .(V.ikl drake makes it a favorite of the natur ' abundance.