The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1877-11-24
The New Empire Of the Pacific.

OreauSCuHS 1Or export from the Unlteu
States will be produced in the country
west of the Rocky Mountains. The ex-
ception will be in the surplus produc-
ton of corn in the Mississippi Valley.
Ohio has ceased to be great wheat
producing State. This crop is yearly
diminishing in Illinois; in Minnesota
the production this year was only about
as much as in California, where we had
one of the drvest seasons ever known.
The agriculture of all the vast region
west of the Rocky Mountains is still in
its infancy. Some If the great Terri
tories are not yet producing breadstuffs
enough for home consumption. That
was true of Oregon a few years ago.
Now there is large feet of wheat-laden
ships sailing from her principal port
every year. Utah Territory, with the
exception of little spot about Salt
Lake, made no show of
agricultural products. Now the
best potatoes found west of
the Mississippi River are produced in
Utah, and sent over to California in
large quantities for consumption. Fruit
culture has been pushed beyond the ST.
ezra. The great apple orchards will be
far up the mountains on either slope.
The culture of the grape and the wine
interest will probably be west of the ST.
ezra, although it is just possible that we
have not yet found the best soils for the
production of wine grapes. The maxi
mum of lumber production has already
been reached in the States east of the
Mississippi. The eastern timber belt
has been explored, and most of the
lands reduced to private possession.
The timber belt of the Pacific coast,
north of Oregon, covers an area clear
up to the north limit of Alaska, or as
far as the climate will permit. No i'm
preston has been made upon the forests
of Alaska, and the timber resources of
Washington Territory will last a long
time.
The facts worthy of especial note are,
that in all the vast region on this side
of the Rocky Mountains, from Mexico to
Behring's Strait, the production of great
staples is yet in its infancy. In partic-
ular places mining may have been car
ried to the limit Of production. So of
wheat cultivation and the production of
lumber. But for one exhausted mine
there are a hundred which have not
been fairly opened; and for one acre of
land where maximum production has
been obtained, there are a hundred
acres which have not been brought UNI
der cultivation. The great cedar for
ests of the northwest coast have hard
ly been touched; and it is only near the
waters edge that much impression has
boov, y,noAo ~, tho fAxooko ~ g. rrhoy,
we have hardly two millions of popula-
ton in the country usually denominated
the Pacific Slope. If twenty millions,
or one-haf of the present population of
the Union, were set down on this area
it would not then be thickly populated.
We have not settled Alaska at all on the
north, and Arizona on the south con-
tains only few thousand. q
In a single month during the present
year, $1,000, 900 feet of pine and fir lum-
Der, mostly from Puget Sound, entered
this port; the amount eof redwood en-
tering during the same month could not
have been less than 5000, 600 or 7,OOO,-
600 feet. A few of the lumber cargOes
are sent abroad. But most lumber for
export is sent abroad direct from the
port of shipment. m'Ee. 5s-ea + q,
All this industrial development is the
product of less than 1900, 900 people.
They have dotted the coast with a few
small towns, have bnilt one large city,
and laid the foundations OF many Others
The Empire of the West is waiting for
population. It comes in slowly, but
surely. California is pushing up to-
ward q million. The Territories are
filling up; and within . quarter of CEN
tury there will probably be ten States on
this side of the Rocky Mountains. These
States will include an area of the most
important mineral, wheat, and lumber
production. Every large and fertile
valley will be made accessible by rail-
road, and every great belt of mines will |
be reached in the same way. It has
taken 25 years to get the leverage Of the !
great industrial Empire; but it is attain
ed at last.