32
THE WEST ' SHORE.
31,858, indicating a population of 127,432 at four to one,
or 159,290 at the old ratio of five. That portion of Idaho
which it is proposed to include in the State of Washing
ton cast 3,300 votes, showing a population of 13,200 or
10,500, according to the ratio used. It is evidont that
the proposed State hod last fall a population ranging
between 140,032 and 175,790. Sovoral thousand have
coine in since, and before a State government could be
organized the altove figuros would be increased fully one
third. The value of assessed proporty in Washington in
1884 was $51,008,484, as compared with $44,107,507, in
1883. At that rate of increase it would exceed $00,000,000
bofore the earliest moment when it could be called upon
to support a State government
It cortainly requirod an export to discover that for
400 milog along itu courso the Columbia has no tributary
offering all the requisites of a salmon hatchery. This
stroain, which fairly teems in the early summer with the
most royal of all salmon, has no place upon its banks
whore tlioso fish may be choaply and successfully propa
gated by artificial means. The export, Mr. Livingston
Stono, requires the whole side of a newspaper to impart
this information. He found one place, he tolls us, where
the conditions wore all favorable but ono, which was the
trilling matter of the absence of tho salmon proposed to
!mi propagated. Ho finally winds up ly telling us what
wo all know Ixiforo that the site of tho old hatchery on
tho Clackamas is as good as can be found, sinco tho diffi
culty of obtaining pure water may bo overcome at no
great expense. Lot some regulation be made whereby a
Bufliciont number of breeding talmon can manage to run
the gauntlotof the two thousand nets spread for thorn on
the Lower Columbia, and Clackamas will again be fillod
with the royal Chinook as in days of yoro, and artificial
propagation of thorn be commenced under favorable con
ditiona This we have always known; but now that an
export has told us bo we will know it hotter, perhaps, and
do something.
Tiiehb is a wealth of suggestion to the Oregon Immi
gration Board, and any other organization which may be
effected in the Northwost for indnciug and aiding immi
gration, to lw found in tho orations of the California
Excursion Association. For sevoral years tho association
has town running monthly exoursion trains from Chicago
to Urn Angeles, and carrying immigrants and intended
settlers in emigrant cars and at emigrant rates, but with
nccommmlations hardly inferior to those to bo found in a
Pullman. They have brought to Los Angeles every
month 150, 200 or even a larger numb3r of immigrants,
priuoiHly from tho Bo-callod Western States, ami most
of whom havo settled in Southern California. The asso
ciation has now turned its attention to the northern por
tion of tho State, and hag perfected arrangements for
similar excursions over the Union and Central Pacific
roads to Sacramento, to begin early in the spring. The
uocesa of this association is worthy of consideration by
those who aim to accomplish the same end.
A coitiiEsroNDENT urges upon us the importance of
shade trees, not only for the private residence but the
public highway. The white maple of Oregon and Wash
ington, he contends, is of quick growth, and superior in
beauty and wealth of shade to the favorite maples, oaks,
chestnuts, elms and locusts of the East. "With its
shapely trunk and branches and its large leaves," he says,
" I jean conceive of no tree giving more shade or of greater
beauty. The fallen autumn leaves furnish a natural
mulch. The teamster and the farmer enjoy the shade in
summer, and all kinds of stock find beneath its protection
a retreat from the piercing rays of the sun." It is a
valuable suggestion. Beautify your homes and line the
highway in front of your farms, and you will add ten
times as much to their market value as the time, labor
and expense amount to, besides rendering yourself more
contented, your home more attractive to yourself and
children, .and doing much more to bring sunshine into
your life than you can now be made to believe. It is the
treeless, barren, desolate farm whose occupants are never
contented, and from which the younger generation floe
as from a prison. More trees and comforts at home
moan less pedro and poker in the neighboring town.
The military authorities at Fort Keogh have decided
to liore an artesinn well at that point This makos the
third in tho Yellowstone Valley. If good flowing wells
can bo hired one of the problems of the West has been
solved There are millions of acres of splendid soil in
regions where the rainfall is too light for agricultural
purposes, and so situated as to be beyond the reach of
irrigation ditches taken from the watercourses and natu
ral raservoirs of the country. If such land can be suc
cessfully irrigated by means of artesian wells, the cultiv
able area of the country will be widely extended. It is
lack of water, and not sterility of soil, that renders
Nevada so valueless for agriculture. Supply Nevada
with water and she will furnish homes for a million of
people in a few years.
A reduction of emigrant rates between Si. Paul and
Portland, from $45 to $30, has been brought about by the
Northern Pacific, whose officials strongly urged it before
tho Transcontinental Association. The company wisely
belioves that immigration into this region should be fos
terod, and that it is good business policy to offer it all
the encouragement possible. Agents of the company are
now in Europe, and it is confidently predicted that for
eign emigration direct to the Pacifio Northwest will be
much larger this year than ever before.
The daily and weekly Walla Walla Statesman, pub
lished by Colonel Frank J. Parker, is a model newspaper
in every respect The Statesman has been identified
with Walla Walla from its infancy, and much of the
prosperity of that city is the result of its enterprise and
energetic championing of every progressive publio meas
ure. It deserves the liberal support it receives from the
citizens of the Inland Empire.