The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1871-07-22
The Albang gegister.
rhe Price OF Land In oregon.

from the Eastern States, who daily visit
our ofice, that the present price at which
land is held in Oregon, is above what
they expected to find it when they started
to this country, and some think above
its real value. Now, we are not SUR
prised at this state Of things It is just
what we were expecting; it is the legiti-
mate result of the system Of over rating
everything connected with Oregon, which
has been practiced for the last few years
by parties interested in getting up alarge
emigration to this country, that they
might profit thereby, regardless of the
real interests of tho country. Men in the
Atlantic States have been led to believe
that our best lands could be purchased
at from SIS to SIS, per acre; that plenty
of government land could be obtained int
favorable localities upon government
terms, all OF which they find, when they
arrive here, to be untrue; and is ii
strange that "they become disguised" as
some of our local papers say they have
done, in some eases, sat the high price of
our lands ?" We think not.
But is it true that our lands in Ore
gon are too high? Is it not just possible
that these gentlemen, although disap-
pointed in finding matters just as they
expected to find them, are yet mistaken
when they say our lands are now held
above their real value Let us look at
this matter calmly few moments, and
see ifthis be really true. Improved lands
in Linn county are now held at from 81
to $50 per acre, as per location, quality
of lands, improvements, &C. Now take a
farm which We hold for sale at $50 per
acre, containing 392 acres. This farm
wonld cost s11, ,760. 200 acres of this
farm is in cultivation, the balance, 1872
acres, in pasture, orchard, &c. Now let
man purchase this farm. put the 200
acres in wheat, and suppose it yield, 20
bushels to the acre, he would have 1000
bushels then suppose he sells at rs cts
per bushel, he will realize $1,000 for
his crop, and in four years he will have
sl2, 900, or s240 more than the whole
farm cost him, saying nothing about what
the orchard, pasture, dairy, chickery,
garden, &C., might yield above the farni-
ly expenses But add to this calcula-
tion another year, and say that it takes
FIVE years to pay for his farm, which is
clearly safe calculation, and is this land
too high at $50 per acre9 We think
not. 1t a man can buy a good $4,000
farm and make the money to pay for it in
five years, and have the farm left, greatly
enhanced in value at the end Of five
years, it seems to US he ought to be salts.
fed ; and there is no vague speculation
in this calculation-the thing can be
done. This is not an extravagant calcu>
| lation, neither is this an extraordinary
| farm. We have several such for sale,
that a man can purchase at the price de-
manded, and pay for them out of the
proceeds of the farm, in three to five
years, provided he has most Of the re-
quired labor within himself or under his
own control and if wheat was to re-
main at its present price, he could hire
the work done-and we do not expect
ever to see wheat as low in Albany as it
has been in years past. We we're then
dependent entirely upon the Willamette
river as our avenue to market, and that
controlled by monopoly, and always at
its lowest stage of water during the latter
part of summer and early fall, SO that our
wheat must necessarily go to the garner
and remain locked up, while the other
sections of the country were taking the
cream of the market. But that day has
passed. We now have the advantage oi
both river and railroad. We can now
load from one side Of our spacious mills ol
storchouses into boat, or from the op
nosite side into the cars, and in from foul
10 FIVE days our wheat is in San Fran
cisco. or four or FIVE hundred miles on,
ON the Pacific ocean on its way to for
eign market, and we are no longer hvine
10 ahole in the ground" and foSced e
40 10 market when it suits the river to
rise or the P. T. Company to send us Q
| boat. But we now go when the marked
calls for us, and it suits our convenience
to respond. No, our lands are not toe
high; they arc worth every dollar tha'
we ask for them, and in fve years from
to-day they will be worth from 25 to 5(
per cent. more than they are now selling
at Make a note Of this, and mark th'
result. We do not pretend to say that !
i the richness Of our soil that render
our lands 80 valuable, bnt il is the pc
culiar adaptability Of the climate and col
to the growing Of wheat, oats, Aax, 30
and entire absence Of deleterious influ
enccs. al of which combined ouables a