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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1886)
THE WEST SHORE. 231 valleys odor splendid ranges for stock. Considerable at tention has been paid to improvement in the quality of slock, and many high grade nnimalB Lave for a number of years been imparting their excellent qualities to the flocks and herds of this region. Not much attention has been paid to swine. Great numbers of hogs are raised, but thoy iut of aii inferior breed and small in Bizo, It is a commou practice in the foot hills to let the swine run at large in the woods and pick their living. A num ber of farmers have pens of fine blood hogs, and their success with thorn, as well as the great contrast in size and quality betweon them and the scrubby, long-snouted natives, iB so great that it must result in a general im provement throughout the county. As a dairying region Lane county xx sesses many advantages. Grasses of all kinds, both native and cul tivated, grow in luxuriance. Cattlo have to dexmd but little upon hay, since the warm rains from early iu the fall until Into iu the spring keep the grass growing. Even in the dry summer season grass remains fresh and green in tho meadows along river and creek Imttom, and in the mountain valleys. Timothy is the leading cultivated grass, and many tons of it aro annually cured for hay. White and red clover make remarkable growths, especially tho former, which is indigenous to tho soil, and springs up spontaneously on tho hills wherever the destruction of trees and underbrush gives it an oppor tunity. Whorover seed is scattered it takes a strong hold, and the meadows of tho valley aro in tho spring covered with the whito blossoms of the shamrock. Tlif re are splondid opxrtunities for associated dairying in Lane county. Butter and cheeso factories conducted on tho cooperative or individual plan pursued in the East would moot with the highest success if managed by a man possessing tho necessary qualifications of ex perience and business tact Certainly milk ought to lie produced choapor in a country whore tho winter climnto is so mild, and fresh grcon grass can lie had almost tho entire year. A few successful small dairies indicate that larger ones properly managed would meet with equal or greater success. The timber resources of this region are vast in tho extreme. From the foot hills to their summits tho en closing mountains are clothed with a dense growth of vahmhe timber, fir, pine, cedar, spruce, hemlock, ash, larch, yew, maple, oak, balm, alder and madrono. Tho most common and most valuaMo of these trees for com mercial purposes is tho Douglass fir, Ahiv lhmijUii, which is the chief reliance of tho lumberman. This wood is improjwrly designate! in the markets of Califor nia and foreign jxrt reached by shippers, as " Oregon pine." It is of a large, tall and straight growth, adapted for this reason, and for its strength and durability, for ship timlors, masU and spars, aa well as for bridge tim bers and general building purposes. As yet little lum Wring has been done in Lane county, except for tho supply of local market, and the great body of timW may be said to be still in it primeval condition. The maple, ash, alder, and oak are used to soma extent for furniture and ornamonttd purposes, for which they are excellently adapted. Considerable tracts, especially iu tho Coast Range, havo been burned over by forest fires, destroying an amount of timber which would bo consid ered enormous in a country less blessed with such a wealth of forest growth. The quantity of timber Hint hits beeu destroyed in clearing land, would, it circum stances had admitted of its being converted into lumber, have Wen worth a sum reaching into the millions of dollars. Circumstances, however, justified this apparent ly prodigal waste. There is less of this wholesale de struetion now, and mora effort is being mndo while clearing land to utilize tho timW growing upon it Tho mineral resources of Lane county, while as yet almost totally undeveloped, aro known to bo extensive and valuable, Gold-Waring quarts ledges have been discovered on tho McKen.io and other leading forks of the Willamette. Tho richness of these lodge has been tested, and recently considerable work has Wn dono on somo of them. In conjunction with numerous available water jmwors, an abundance of cheap fuel, a yearly de creasing cost of tho expense of mining and reducing ores, and of transportation, capital should find profitable employment iu developing these ledges. Immigrant desiring to settle hero should under stand from tho first that there can not now lie had, eith er in Lano or any other county of the Willamette val ley, any prairie land not already occupied There are, however, large tracts of timW laud comparatively level, and much hill land but lightly timWed. Large areas of rich land, as yet unclaimed, extend along tho courses of tho streams flowing from tho eastern side of the county. In many places the ravages of forest fires have so reduced tho heavy growth of timber covering that section of tho country, that tho work of clearing the laud for farming pursms is comparatively easy. Along tho eastern slope of the Coast Ilango are quite extensive areas of foot hill land, covered with brush and timW, which aro available for settlement. (Special attention is called to what is known aa the " Hiuslaw country," by which term is meant tho region bordering ujsin the stream of that name. It extends through the Coast Ilango to tho Pacific, and embrace twenty-nino townships of agricultural laud, not a tenth of which has yot Won taken. This land Wlongs to the government, end is subject to entry under the general land laws. The soil is rich and produces prolillcally. As a dairying region it ixmsetises advantages even su erior to the valley, since tho ocean mista keep tho grass fresh even during tho dry season. There is nsun on the Hiuslaw for five hundred families. On the bay at the mouth of tho river aro located three salmon fisheries, and preparing for market this excellent fish is th lead ing industry of that region. Tho town of Florence is the commercial jsiint and shipping port The limber of that region is especially Ann, ami ImuWing will be come a great industry as soon as transpiration facilities aro provided A good wagon road leads down the river from Eugene City, the distance to the Uy being sixty