THE WEST SHORE.
107
the ground; but beneath this mass of wood and shrub
lies n noil of remnrkitblo fertility.
It is often stated that it does not pay to oloar timber
land that it costs more than the land is worth. This is
an error when Buch land as is spokon of above is meant
Suppose, for example, that a settler has located a home
stead of 160 acres on that charaoter of land, and begins
his work of oloaring in August It is usually possible
on a windy day, in the dry time, to got a fire started
which will run a good many rods in the green timbnr.
This fire will kill and burn up msot of the brush, and
consume much of the rotten wood on tho ground It will
also kill the green timber. We way supine that the
settler makes a preliminary burn on fifty acres. It might
take a week to do this. A great many fires would have
to be started, foeble ouos encouraged, or the fire checked
by counter burning if running in a direction not desired.
In some places the brush would be simply burned off at
the roots and pot burned up. Any quantity of logs would
be left half burned on the ground; but, on the whole, the
burn would be ready without more trouble to be seeded.
The best time for this is just before the autumn rains in
October. Grass seed scattered in the ashes in the fall
makes abundant pastuiage for the succeeding year. Our
settler thus has pasturage secured for a number of years.
He wants to got laud ready for cultivation. ' As soon as
the preliminary fire is out he must go to work in tho most
eligible spot to gather up the brush and haul up the logs
in piles to burn. He can scarcely gut along without a
yoke of oxen in this work. The large spruce trees which
remain standing he can bore and burn down. He can
bore from a dozen to twenty in a day. The hemlocks
which remain standing he can easily burn out by piling
brush and logs around their roots. The solid timber on
the ground must be out open by saws and rolled tngothor
to burn. There would still be left roots in the ground,
but a large part of thorn, as well as the butts of the trees,
would be reduced to ashes. If the settler is clearing on
the side of a hill he can roll the lengths of the logs down
as he cut them off. An able-bodied man, with a yoke of
oxen, can clear almost any acre of laud in a mouth. If
he takes advantage of a thin patch in the woods, such as
always are to le found, he can clear double that amount
I3y spring for in burning logs by piling thorn into a pit
or rolling them into a little gully where there is a fire it
takes no difference how wet they are he will have from
four to ton acres of land cleared, ready for the plow, and
forty or fifty acres of grass for pabturo. He will have
been able, too, to rive out a few thousand spruoe shakos
and make a shanty for himself and family, and to put up
a slight sholtor for his oows and oxea
Suppose that he has ready only four acres of land for
cultivation. One of these acres will raise all the vegeta
bles his family needs for a year; two acres ho can sow
with carrots, which will make excellent feed for bis stock,
and part of which he can sell, if he be near market, at
good profit The other acre he can sow to oaU, which be
will cut for hay; yet if he has so much pasture and a
apply of roots for winter feed he will need little hay.
He would in a short time burn up all the brush and rot
Uu logs on some acre or two next his oloaring, without
bringing down the solid timber, and sow it to wheat
This he oould out with a sickle for his ohiokons, Tho
second summer he would, perhaps, work some for his
noighbors, to get somo ready money. K he camo with
money enough to buy oows and hogs, he oould begin at
once making butter and fattening hogs. It he wore uot
thus prepared ho oould,' undoubtedly, get hold of several
calves, and in a few years work into a dairy. Cattle and
goats would tramp and eat down any fresh brush that
began to grow on his burnt land The dead timber would
gradually rot away, and ho oould constantly incroaso his
wholly cleared land In teu years ho oould have every
acre of his quarter section either wholly cleared or iu
productive pasture. He oould have an orchard in bear
ing and comfortable buildings. Work can nearly always
be had by an industrious man, to aid in tho supKrt of
himself and family while clearing his land and scouring
title to iiis homestead.
If one goes into tho woods in this way and this is no
imaginary piuturo, but what has boon dona a few years'
lalor will make him a home and productive farm. It is
not truo that it oosts (50 an acre to oloar heavily timbered
land if one settles on the land and does the work himself;
but eveu if it wore true, the land is worth (50 an acre,
and will yield an interest of fully 12) per oont ou the
investment Any one who has nerve and muscle, indus
try and suflloiont steadiness of purpose to work at the
same place a doxeu years, has as good a thing as he
wants iu tho wood of Western Oregon.
CLATSOP COUNTY.
This county occupies tho extreme northwest corner of
Oregon, its northern lordor being tho water of the
mighty Columbia, and its wostern the rolling breaker of
the Pacific; east ami south lio Columbia and Tillamook.
The oonuty at proseut to far a population and proorty
are oonoernod, oonsista chiefly of tho city of Astoria,
thriving business place of 8,000 people, lying on the
south bank of the Columbia, about ten mile above the
bar at the rim's mouth Here was made the first settle,
ment in the whole region tributary to the Columbia
Uiver. In 1811 the Pacific Fur Company established a
trading post and general headquarter for the immense
business they expected to transact on tho Pacific Coast,
and the place was named Astoria in honor of John Jacob
Astor, the founder and financial backer of the enterprise.
A few year later it became the property of the Hudson'
Day Company. In 18-18 a town began to spring up and
a custom house was established In 1810 the canning of
salmon began on the river, and from that time Astoria
grow rapidly. Twenty-four of the thirty-eight caunerie
now on tho river are located there, and tho other are
tributary to that city. There were packed during the
season of 1884 650,000 cases, or about 1,800,000 fish, of an
average weight of twenty pounds eaclu In catching the
salmon some 1,700 boat were employed, with two men In
each, and more than (1,600,000 were paid out to fhther-