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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1884)
THE WEST SHORE. 137 mous freight charges and vendors' profits. This trade has been a drain of many hundred thousand dollars a year from the people to support communities far away, who pay us no taxes and share none of our burdens. But the manufacture of furniture from our native woods ash, maple, oak, spruce, cedar, alder and fir has begun in earnest The product of the factories in Portland and vicinity in 1883, as per estimate of men in the business, was $200,000. The product in 1883 of other factories in Oregon and Washington, as estimated, was $100,000. These sums saved by cabinetmakers here furnished a cash circulation worth ten times the amount. Yet most of the fine furniture will be brought at high cost until manufacturers import the hardwoods of Mexico and Central America. Chairs are imported at a cost of $100,000 per year, which can all be made of our own woods. A firm in Salem has established a chair factory, which it is hoped will arrest the importation and save the funds for home circulation. The strongest protest ought to be made against the destruction of ash for fence rails and firewood. It makes the most cheerful finishings and furnishings for dwellings. It is worth $50 to $00 per thousand feet now, and Boon it will command rates like black walnut in the Mississippi Valley. -Maple, alder, cottonwood and oak are rising in value rapidly for these purposes. Spruce has won a front rank also. Juniper jn Southeastern Oregon will have a place in the shop for finishinga Cedar will keep its place and rise in value every year. Not a log ought to be burned or made into rails. Alaska cedar will be more in demand as its fine grain and sweet odor become known. Like the seal and the arctio furs, it will be counted a luxury for the richer mansions and princely tables. , Sixty thousand acres of grub oak thickets have been cleared for wheat fields and pastures, it is estimated, and yet the grub oaks as timber forests were worth more than the land ever will become as wheat fields. They should be thinned and trimmed and allowed to grow, and then selected ones taken for the purposes required. For ax helves they outlast two or three of hickory. For pick handles, wagon felloes, spokes and even hubs they are superior to any imported. A wagon built of Oregon oak, especially that grown among the fir, will outlast two im ported from the West or East It is a wicked waste to cut these oaks for wood and stakes. It destroys what skilled artisans in the shops most need for their indus tries. It is like a man burning bank notes, principal and interest to keep himself warm for a brief time. Western pioneers burned and destroyed black walnut forests which now would be worth $100 for every tree two feet in diameter. Our farmers and other land owners are doing the same reckless thing. In carriage and wagon making, until recently, it was thought imix88ible to compete with the importer. The trial has been made. The test Las been a severe ona Capital has hold back in distrust and the enterprising manufacturer has been put to tlie utmost strain of his resources and credit But his finished products rank with the best Bnd often take the prize. Pity that money invested in sinking and almost worthless stocks was withheld from him in his hour of nood and from his noble band of skilled artisans, in their honorable purpose to establish this line of home indnntrion n firmly in onr Pacifio Northwest ns they have lxen established in the region of the great lakes and on the Atlantic shores. By the home industries named in this paper alone a round million dollars was saved last year for homo circu lation in Oregon and Washington. Keep up those enter prises this year and the result will lw the same. Suspend or repress them and business lifo will in that degree bo arrested and, perhaps, destroyed. - O. II. Atkinson. PINO EXTRACT FOR BATHING. IT has long been recognised that the atmosphere of pine forests has an invigorating and beneficial effect upon people witli weak constitutions and sulToring from pulmonary disorders. At somo of the watering places of Germany the very simple prescription of the physician is that the pationt should spend several hours a day walk ing or riding through the pine wood. This simple treat ment is sometimes supplemented by tho taking of pine batliB, and in the case of kidney diseases and for delicato children this is claimed to be highly beneficial. Tho bath is prepared by simply pouring into tho water about half a tumblerful of an extract made from tho fresh needles of the pine. This extract is dark in color nnd closely resembles molasses in consistency, and when poured into tho bath givos tho water a muddy apear. ance with a slight foam on tho surface. Tho repugnance one feels to enter into such a muddy-looking fluid is dispelled as soon as tho dolightful aroma which arises from the bath is inhaled. Although thoro may somo doubt whether pine baths act uixm tho system in any othor wise than as a tonic, still, as an adjunct to tho daily bath, infusion of tho pine extract induces a most agreeable sensation. It givos tho skin a deliciously soft and silky feeling, and tho effect upon tho nerves is quieting. It is a matter of somo surprise to us that tho business of manufacturing and bottling the extract for private use and public bathing establishments has not been tried in this country, whore pino forests abound so extensively. The extract when properly bottled and securely corked will not deteriorate for a long time, and the cost for gathering tho pino needles and extracting their tarry sulwtanco would not l very great, whilo tho demand for it would likely increase to largo proportions when tho public becamo accustomed to its use. HonsE Dealeii: "Why do you want to sell that pretty colt? Ho is not broke yet in ho ?" Owner: " No, but I am. . A lady found tho proprietor in a store so sonml asleep that sho thought ho was dead. At first it was supposed ho was a retired night watchman nnd imagined himself back on duty, but inquired dovcloped tho fact that he didn't advertise.