THE WEST SHORE.
131
which are supposed to bo mutters of gonoral information,
to properly read and digest an immigration pamphlet
It is occasionully tlio Caoj thai pooilivo luiiwUUiutiuU of
facts are made, chiefly by irresponsible scribblers and
" traveling correspondents," whose productions are com
posed of equal parts of ignoranoe and imagination, but it
is seldom the finger can be laid upon untruthful para
graphs in such legitimate immigration publications as
should be looked upon as authoritative or worthy of con
fidence. For one case where dissatisfaction arises from
actual perversion of facts, there will be ton growing out
of the inability to fully comprehend or digest what has
been published. It is too often the case that in reading
of this region a few facts are seized upon, facts in strong
and favorable contrast with unsatisfactory conditions at
home, while all others are ignored, and over those is
thrown the proverbial enohantmont of distance. Thus
primed the immigrant reaches his destination only to
suffer terrible disappointment. In his anger and chagrin
he naturally bolieves and asserts that he has been de
ceived, when, in reality, he is himsolf chiofly to blame for
the erroneous ideas he started with. Suoli cases are met
with every day. It is very questionable if there was ever
a description of the Puget Sound. country issued for im
migration purposes that did not call secial attention to
the fact that it is a densoly timbered region, and that
farms can only be made by yoars of hard labor in olearing
the land, yet almost daily disappointed immigrants are
encountored who complain bitterly of not finding vacant
land there upon which they can at onoe begin farming.
After the physical characteristics of that rogion have
been so thoroughly doBoribed in publications of every
sort, it seems almost impossible that an intelligent roan
oould have so little comprehended what ho read as to
expect to find open prairie land waiting for him along
Fugot Sound. But the fact still remains that many do
have just such ideas and hold others responsible for
them. Still others come with the expectation of settling
upon Government land within a few miles of Portland,
Salem, Walla Walla and other old towns, whore the sur
rounding farms have been nndcr cultivation for many
years. No respectable publication ever said that vacant
land oould be found in the outskirts of our chief cities.
If an immigrant desires land in the heart of the Willam
ette Valley, or contiguous to any of our towns, he must
buy it; and he who has sufllcient capital will generally
find it far preferable to purchase land whose character
and location suit him than to undertake the task of olear
ing forest land or making a home on the prairie, whoro
he mast wait for towns to grow and market to be cre
ated. The vacant lands of Western Oregon and Wash
ington are only to be found in the foothills and moun
tains and along the courses of streams now far removed
from the usual routos of travel and not of easy access to
market, and all are covered with brush and timW. East
of the mountains there is a great quantity of ojxin prairie
and river bottom lands, dovoid of timber, the choicest of
which now remaining vacant lies at considerable distance
from any railroad. There is, howaer, mneh good land
comparatively near railroad stations, though none, of
oourso, in the immodiate vicinity of any railroad town of
prominence. It is evident that immigrants who desire to
sottle upon Government land must come prepared to go
into tho forest or help to develop some now region. The
best openings are to be found by those who are willing to
purchase. Such Mrsons will find much desirable land
for sale at from $10 to T0 per acre, with cash and time
paymonta.
Tiieiik is a phase of the immigration quostion which
has reoeived too little attention from the press, an evil
which the present movement to inaugurate local town and
oounty immigration lmards will have a tondnnoy to abate.
In nearly every town there are a few land sharks har
pies who prey upon strangers who are seeking for land
There are reputable real estate dealers and there are
scoundrels who make the business simply a cloak to hide
their rascalities. Sotuo of tho simplest forms of swind
ling practiced by thorn is selling land to which they have
no title; bargaining for the sale of a fine pieoo of prop
erty to which they have not a shadow of claim and which
may not be in tho market at all, and then giving a deod
to a oomparativoly valueless tract perhaps a milo or two
away; purchasing railroad or other land for au immigrant
and receiving from him the full value, while actually
paying only the first installment; receiving foes for locat
ing a claim Uxm land which they aro well aware is not
oon to location, or actually filing upon somo worthless
tract, while pretending to secure for their client some
valuable one which they have shown him. These aro but
a few of tho numerous dovioos employed by such mon.
It should le the first duty of immigration boards to
checkmate such reprehensible schemes, and those towns
possessing no organization of that character should form
one, it for no other purKso thn to defend themselves
from the injury inflicted by such tricksters. Tho harm
they do the localities in which they live cannot bo calcu
lated. Not a tenth of their schemes are successful, and
fully one-half tho men whom they attempt to swindle
become distrustful and leave in disgust, when otherwise
they would probably invest and become valuable addi
tions to the community. In justice to them and to our
selves we should endeavor to encourage and protect
immigrants as much as possible. We have invitad them
to come and settle among us, and it is our duty to keep
them out of the clutches of these land sharks. It is also
a duty wo owe to ourselves to prevent Intending investors
and settlers from loiiig driven away by such unscrupu
lous leeches.
In shaking of the comparative merits of wheat grow
ing and diversified farming, in which term dairying is
included, the Ht Louis Ilrpuhlimn says that if one-half
the money and lalor expended last year in raising Mis
souri's crop of 35,000,000 bushels of wheat had been
given to dairying tho net returns would have been doubled.
There is in this statement considerable for farmers to
think about Wheat raising in the Mississippi Valley is
rapidly booming unprofitable iu competition with tb