OREGON CITY COURIER-HERALD NEW YEAR NUMBER.
3
CLACKAMAS COUNTY
ONE OF THE RICHEST COUNTIES IN THE STATE OF
OREGON IN NATURAL RESOURCES
GRAIN.
Our skits change, but our soil never, and
Clackamas County's fields of golden, wav
ing grain roll around as certain as the har
vest season. Along the river and creek bot
toms the soil is a sandy loam, on the level
land black loam and on the upland, or bills,
red loam. In several parts of the county
Embracing over a million acres of Ore
gon's fertile soil, and straddling the winding
coils of the Willamette River, lies the
County of Clackamas. It bugs the banks of
these navigable waters for about 15 miles,
has an average width of 35 miles, and from
the river to the summit of the Cascades its
length is about 50 miles. It is bounded on
the north by Multnomah County, where
Portland, the metropolis of the state, is lo
cated: on the east by Wasco, on the south
by Marion, where Salem, the state's Capital,
is situated, and on the west by Washington,
Yamhill and Marion. Clackamas County has
an area of 1500 square miles and a popula
tion of 25.000. The principal industries are
mining, manufacturing, farming, dairying,
stock-raising, lumbering, hop and fruitgrow
ing. The county has an inexhaustible sup
ply of timber, coal and iron, with splendid
soil for farming, grazing, hopgrowing and
fruit culture.
TIMBER.
The timber lands lie mainly on the foot
hills and slopes of the Cascades. The ex
tent of the forests is prodigious, but as yet
only the vaguest statement can be given as
to the available quantity. Speaking gener
ally, there is a belt of timber trees upon the
western slope of the Cascades that is 20 or
more miles wide, and extending north and
south the entire length of the range. The
present demand for lumber is constantly
causing the building of sawmills on the
streams that drain this commanding por
tion of the far-famed Willamette Valley,
namely, the Sandy, Pudding, Molalla, Tuala
tin and Clackamas Rivers. All these
streams, with the exception of the Tualatin,
derive their source from the snow belts of
the Cascades, arid their waters are cool,
wholesome and clear. The manufacture of
railroad ties is becoming quite extensive by
.4:
1 V ',. t T - -i.il iU'.'-f.V u '
CLACKAMAS COUNTY HOP YARD.
the mills along the Sandy River. It is esti
mated the mills of this county sawed over
1.000,000 ties last year. The forests and tim
ber belts of this section of Oregon are at
tracting the attention of lumbermen from
Maine to Michigan.
Geographical surveys of forests show that
the timber in Oregon reaches the enormous
total of 307,000,000,000 feet, board measure.
It is estimated that 25,000.000,000 feet of
this amount lines the banks of the Clacka
mas River.
Jim t
CLACKAMAS COUNTY PRUNE ORCHARD.
is a large amount of beaver-dam land, the
richness of which cannot be overestimated.
The soil of this county is as fertile as any
lying out of door, and abundantly produces
wheat, oats, rye, corn, barley, hay, hops,
onions, potatoes, clover, timothy, flax and
other grasses. The surface is rolling, here
and there level prairie land, with natural
drainage.
Twenty years ago, when the first wheat
flour was shipped from the Pacific Coast to
the Orient, an "open door" was not an ab
solute necessity, for the flour shipment from
these shores was but a modicum. But today
the largest steamers, freighted to their ca
pacity, clear from Portland, Tacoma, Seat
tle and San Francisco for the Asiatic marts,
and it is very necessary that we have open
sesame there to reach those who will take
our products. The flour trade in the Orient
was of no great magnitude prior to a decade
agone. The Asiatic's taste for flour is one
that has been cultivated. The development
of this trans-Pacific commerce has been sin
gularly pronounced of late years. The in
crement has been at the rate of 25 per cent
for each preceding twelvemonth. In Ore
gon there are ,15 mills, with a capacity of
0000 barrels daily, that are grinding for the
export trade. Oregon has 101 mills, with
4-65 barrels' capacity, that supply local trade.
Careful and conservative estimates of the
grain raised in Clackamas County last year
and sold in the markets of the world are
placed at 300,000 bushels, the largest part of
this being wheat. This does not include the
many thousand bushels kept for home con
sumption. The usual yield of Winter wheat
is 25 to 50 bushels per acre; Spring wheat, 20
to 35 bushels; oats, 30 to 60 bushels. Wheat
has long been a staple product, and a fail
ure of this crop has never been known in
Oregon. Recently more attention has been
paid to diversified farming, and fruitgrowing,
hopraising, gardening, stock and poultry
raising, and lumber manufacturing are be
coming important and profitable industries.