glt THE WEST SHORE.
61 wheat, wool, etc, the board has zeal- for the company to select therefrom onlj
onsly worked to accomplish that end. forty-one hundred acres. The remain.
When this is accomplished as it will der will undoubtedly be restored to the
be some day The Dalles will increase people. There is much of this supposed
in size and commercial importance at a grant land et unclaimed, which may be
still greater rate than at present At squatted upon by any one willing to wait
its last session, the legislature passed for a little, and take his chances of never
an act authorizing the city to issue getting it without paying the company
bonds to the amount of 25,000.00, for for it There is, however, in the south,
the purpose of constructing a bridge ern portion of the county, much desira
acroes the Columbia, and designated a ble vacant land; also much on the lover
commission of its citizens, of whom Gov. slopes of the mountains. There are,
Moody is president, to carry out the also, many quarter sections claimed by
provisions of the act The commission- persons who have not, and never can
ers have investigated the matter, and have, a legal title to them, which may be
learned that a bridge can be built with- filed upon in the land office. These
in the sum authorized, at a point some " smuggled " tracts are really public
four miles up the river, but that at no lands, and are open to the entry of any
suitable point near the city can one be person who is legally entitled to enter
built for that amount of money. The lands under the government land laws,
matter remains in abeyance, the com- The fertility of the lands of Wasco
missioners not having yet come to a de- county may be judged from the figures,
cision in the matter. given on a previous page, of the ship-
Although Wasco county was much ment of products. On the uplands back
cut up a few years ago, by the formation from the river, whre the soil is rich
of Crook and Gilliam counties, it is still and deep, wheat is a good erop, averag.
one of the largest in the state. Within ing from twenty to thirty bushels per
its limits are vast tracts of land with- acre. Corn, of a most superior quality,
drawn from settlement, pending the con- grows to perfection, uninjured by frost
firmation of grants to The Dalles Mili- In fact, there is less frost on the ridges
tary Iad and the Northern Pacific than on the low lands near the river.
Kecently a wide strip held as lieu lands When winter sets in it is colder up there,
or the latter was thrown open for set- but until then, it is exempt from injuri-
lemont, and a large number of filings ous frosts. Thousands upon thousands
have n b gettI m rf
ZITn YDd their adjoining counties tributary to The
L th 1 Ti"8 u 0?PrhDit7 dalles, the sheep finding excellent sum
h n rlT fb r;TtitIa merPge in the mountain valleys,
Ids wi tU rUed that th9 10 h they are driven in the spring.
In Tt T 1 rS, Hmit8 T Aether, Wasco offers many
a o ut nt h6 rf"0 iDdmentstothe agriculturistseeking
SfffiMS" affords the business man who desires to
B!tef a 8eltle in a thrig town, situated in the
acre, of lieTlands for the "M of to