The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1873-04-04

Editor Democrat.
For the past few weeks have been
travelling through the upper part of
Linn and the lower part of Lane
counties in behalf of the farmers
warehouse enterprise, and am pleased
TO say that I met with much cncour-
agement. / visited Halsey, Harris
burg, Eugene, and even penetrated as
far up as Springfield, Lane county
I prepared and read an article before
the Springfield Farmers Club, which
their President informed me should
be published in the Eugene papers,
In the neighborhood of Springfield I
found as fine lot Of people as I ever
met in my life.
There was no backbiting; each one
spoke well of his neighbors, and they
all appeared to be happy and con.
tented people. While in that part OF
the country made my headquarters
at the house of George Egbert, sen
sible, thrifty, good-looking farmer
Thos. Edwards, n well-to-do farmer
of that part of the county, says the
hope of the country depends on the
present energetic action on the part
of the farmers in getting rid OF these
middle men, whose anaconda coil is
crushing out the vitality of the coun-
try. +. and l.. Powers, old acquaint-
ances OF mine, are on the Astoria
move and give it as their opinion that
it is the only hope of the country. j.
Kelly, president of the Springfield
Farmers Club, is an active business
man and universally beloved by his
fellow farmers. Mr.. Armitage is n
rustler and says as near rs he can tell,
after going TO considerable trouble,
that the farmers in the forks of the
Willamette have about 100, GOO BUSH
els of wheat for export. The farmers
are all complaining on account of want
OF transportation. They have to haul
their wheat long distance, ferry the
Willamette, and then haul three miles
further to Engene; aud it costs them
% cents per bushel to ship it by the
cars half way to the sea-board. They
say they can't feed that elephant at
the rate charged.
The face of the country in the forks
of the Willamette is something in apl
pearaiIce TO that of Old Linn, only
the swales are fewer and deeper, and
there is not half as much waste land;
there is also n splendid ouirange
among the undulat;ng bald foot hills.
Providing they had transportation al
reasonable rates, my judgment is that
they would raise between 100000
and 100000 bushels per annum for
export. They ought to have a cheap
er means of transportation than rail.
roads. This is the finest country for
canals in the world. not excepting
Holland. If this situation was in
Pennsylvania, there would have been
4 canal plowed and scraped out long
ago. There ought to be canal reach
ing from Albany, or near there, to some
point on the Willamette near Spores
ferry, where the banks of the river
are very low. There is almost a nat
ural channel from the latter point to
the Calapooia near Brownsville, where
a canal could be taken over that creek
very easily by means of an aqueduct,
and from there can be taken any
where down the Willamette valley
The same can be said of the west
side of the Willamette. There is
swale running three-fifths of the way
from the mouth of the Long Tom
river to Eugene City. BY the use of
a dam at Spores ferry on the McKen-
zie, to cause slack water, this canal
could be continued to Springfield, or
anywhere up the Coast, Middle or
Forks, afording great IA
cilities for transportation and opening
up the resources of the country
IT it is necessary to build locks, they
would afford an excellent water pow
er. From the junction of the canal
with the Willamette, the river can be
80 there can be water trans
portation on it at least ten months in
the year. The cost of constructing
a canal here would not be over one
fourth as much as it would in Penn
sylyania or other Eastern States.
where they have to do nearly all the
work with picks, shovels and wheel
barrows, and also have great deal of
blasting; here the major portion can
be ploughed and scraped. In Penn
sylvania saw an aqueduct that must
have cost as much as the whole of one
of these canals in Linn and Lane
counties (the aqueduct I refer to is in
Lycoming comfy, crossing Lycoming
creek; the piers are all cut stone, and
the fiume is about 6 feet deep by 1s
feet wide), and canal in Oregon is
worth twice as much as ore in Penn