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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1883)
72 THE WEST SHORE. April, 1883, lie in vast unbroken tracts fur hundred! of miles lone lxth banks of the Columbia, extending btck from the river from thirty to fifty miles, and lying in Wasco, Umatilla, Klickitat, Yakima, WnlU Wnlla, Whitman and Spokane counties, Immigrants are pouring into that portion known as the Big Rend country, but settlements through out this whole region are being made. Th transformation of a few years will be wonderful Irrigation, though beneficial, is not necessary in the greater portion, and water can lie found easily by digging. The cry of " No water" and "Too dry " has kept as wilderness a region that will soon be covered with villages. The railroad has been the chief factor in drawing attention to this land and making it valuable. The failure in congress of the river and harbor appropriation bill is very detrimental to the inter' esls of this coast and in consequence to the who! nation. The wealth and power of the United Slates has been wonderfully augmented by the development of the great northwest, and money expended in opening harbors and means of trans portal ion would be returned a thousand fold in an increase of the nation a resources. It is but the cultivation of a field from which results a bounti ful crop. Whatever there may be of fraud connection with such appropriations in the east we know not but we do know that the sums be towed upon us have been judiciously expended and have as far as they were able accomplished the desired end. That many of the improvement! are in an incompleted state, is due entirely to the insufficiency of past appropriations. Owing to the fact that 1 failure of this bill was among the possibilities, engmeen in charge of govern ment works here have husbanded their resources, and have not pushed the work as rapidly as they otherwise would. The result is that at some points work can be continued slowly, at others enough can be done to keep it in its present con dition so that the work already accomplished shall not be rendered useless, while in still other places nothing can be accomplished whatever. Kail roads in many places along our mountainous coast are Impracticable, and streams form the only out let to millions or acres of agricultural, timler, Coal and mineral lands. It Is for such streams as these we ask congress for money, and are refused wcvauas Mncni mriiiucr are ignorant 01 our geography. The $20,000 appropriated last year lor rivers emptying into 1'uget sound, which Sec retaiy Lincoln withheld, have been released, and Capiain Powell is now constructing a snag boat lor clearing die channels of the Skagit, Snohomish, Mvoqualmie, Nookiack and Slillaguamish riven. This work Is of great Importance to the lumber, agricultural and mining interests of that region. Work abtolutely necessary on the Willamette and Columbia bars will no doulrt I undertaken by inc mercnanis 01 tnis city. In the February number of the consular reports appears a letter from II. Matson, consul general at Calcutta, in regard to the India wheat crop and its effect uikmi the market for our own product India Is now able lo supply a surplus of 40,000,. OS) bushels annually to the European market, and is capable of bereaving that quantity indefinitely by cleariag her vast jungles and converting them iate grata fields. That it an expensive work and will not be done to any extent unlet our failure lo supply the Eutupeaa demand at reasonable nua skill atimuiate them to unusual exert ion. At present an expanding area of wheat-producing lands, railroad conveniences, facilities for hand ling grain, and the stability of our money exchange, give us an advantage over India, which we can maintain if we keep pace with her in reducing the cost of production and handling. It is just at this point that the Panama or Nicaragua canal, or possibly both of them, will play an important part. The completion ol one of these will give us a hold upon the European grain market that it will be hard to shake off. It will save us millions of dollars annually in reducing the cost of ship ment by at least half. Even without that the completion of the great trans-continental lines of road will so cheapen the cost of producing thi grain that our grasp upon the market will be firmer than ever. He who sleeps upon the track will lose the race even to the most sluggish com petitor ; and we must be awake to the situation and prepared to seize every point of advantage, Our broad acres rapidly being settled upon and brought under cultivation, our railroads reaching out their helping arms to every district in our vast domain, our freight rates being rapidly re duced by the increasing volume of business, all give us assurance of continued prosperity in pro ducing wheat, and extend an invitation to ener getic men that they should not be slow to accep t, fertile lands free and a market guaranteed are blessings that ought to be appreciated, and by the thousands pouring into our country we know that they are. A few years hence, when these mag, nificent opportunities are gone, those who have failed to appreciate them will wonder at their own blindness. OREGON. EASTERN OREGON. lleppner has now a paper, the Gazettt. and will receive much benefit from the prominence its columns will give it. The system of water works to be introduced mo 1 cnciicion includes a reservoir back of the cuy 10 give a pressured seventy-five feet. A Catholic college is to be erected at The Dalles i once. I he structure will be 60x90 feet, two stories and basement, and be constructed of stone IIU UIILK. Foster, a station between Umatilla A has now a good store, and is the point ni tin or. railroad to run to Prospect farm and the wheat fields in the northwestern corner to Umatilla tuuniy. Twenty miles southeast of Hnn., .1.. mbryo town of Adamsville. nr. it,. - iwu irum Canyon City ,0 The Dalle, and Alkali, in ,he midst of an excellent agricultural rermn T, . S3"vaaAl 111 l- !t:e,tnd,b,ac!:,,nith ,hp- nd " to nave a hotel and olher imornv.m... and limber are abundant. There are many fine sections in w.. yet inviting settlement. One of ih. i. rv:.,.l Springs, about twentv-five mil fmm tu. r. ctoad , Canyon City, wn-;;; have demonstrated the feriilii.r .1.. . .. . . danuhilb. .v. . ' ",c " ana " ,.,c proaucuon of gra in and fruit The fact that W.sco has been fcJL .. . V o hette, uu. thoK they pb, VwS." Many are learning this, and a great increase ia business at the land office in The Dalles is th consequence. Since the Malheur reservation was thrown opes to settlement considerable attention has beta' traded by that portion of Grant and Bales' counties known as the Malheur country. Mam settlers have gone thither in search of homes. A, a stock region this is well known to be all that could be desired, but for agricultural purposes, with the exception of a comparatively small amount of bottom lands, the general opinion it that it is not desirable. In the neighborhood of Stein mountain, to the southwest, there is said to be much fine agricultural land. It may, perhaps, be proven that the general opinion in regard to the Malheur country is incorrect, as it has been ia many other places. Good bunch grass land hat been generally found to be worth something for farming purposes. WESTERN OREGON. A national bank has been organized in Albany. A fruit cannery is talked of in Eugene Citv. That is certainly a splendid location for one. A reservoir to contain 20,000 'gallons of water and to give a pressure of fifty feet, is being con structed at Corvallis. With 4,000,000 feet of lumber from her mills and several million bricks from the penitentiary, Salem hopes to have material for her new build ings this season. The demand for lumber and brick is great. During the fine weather in March, C. P. Hall, of Washington county, plowed and seeded it$ acres in twenty-four days. All but thirty-seven acres were drilled in, and from present appear ances will make a good crop. Grain throughout the whole county is in splendid condition. Building activity in Astoria is very great Times are lively there now because of the open ing of the canning season. The river is dotted with sails, and thefe are more boats yet to go into the water. Too many boats have been fitted out, and an effort is being made to lay np some ot them, though no satisfactory agreement has yet been made by competing companies. Portland is as busy as ever. Work 00 the foundation of the large hotel is being pushed with vigor. A four-story brick hotel too feet square will soon be commenced on the comer of Fourth and Yamhill, several fine brick blocks IB under way and others will soon be started. Tot stranger the activity and bustle of this city ii w prising, exceeding so much that which they hue been accustomed to seeing in other cities of the same size. A new town to be called Lenore is to be Wi out in Columbia county near the foot of Deer Island and about a mile above and opposite to Kalama. The town site cover 400 acres. The main channel of the Columbia is but sixty W from the shore at that point, and as it Is below several of the most troublesome obstructions ill the channel and at or near the Doint where UK Northern Pacific will cross the river, the pf DrietOri exnrci In malt, il an Imnnrlint fhiPP10! point, and possibly a rival to Portland, as K lama was expected to be some ten years ago. SOUTHERN OREGON. The spring wheat b all in, there au