The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1882-04-04
Western Oregon and Washington.

vast resources that exist within
these boundaries, must carry con-
viction that in the near future a
great destiny awaits US. At the
present time, says the Willamette
Farmer, the rush Of immigration
is towards the open country east
of the Cascades that invites the
plow and yields such prodigious
crops from virgin soils. However
remote these grain fields are, they
invite settlers because they are so
easily TILED, and return such boun-
tiful crops to the husbandman.
Those widespread prairies and
hills, however, while promising so
much to the plowman. have their
limitations. Like the Western
prairies, they yield great harvests
and create agricultural wealth,
but have their limitations as
wealth producing districts, while
regions of the same state west OF
the Cascade range possess natural
resources that have no superior
taken for agriculture and other
elements of wealth, on the Ameri-
can continent.
To appreciate the value of this
whole region, and the immensity
of its resources, we can safely en-
ter on a comparison with any
other portion of the United States,
and the most natural comparison
will be with the country occupy
ing a similar scope on the Atlantic
share of this same continent. AL
OF New England, New York and
Pennsylvania possess 158,46O
square miles of territory, while Or
egon and Washington have 154, ,26S
square miles, so we have an area
equal to those eight states, which
are the most populous in the ma
ton. and their wealth is. in pro.
portion, even in excess Of the pop
ulation. While the commerce o.
New York, Boston and Philadel-
phia is built up by the nation at
large, and creates wealth
this region may never equal,
still the greatness of those
eight industrial states on the
Atlantic is dependent chiefly on
their natural resources, and to that
extent we can make comparison
not doubling that in time the
commerce of the world will create
great emporiums in Oregon and
on Puget Sound that shall rival
the greatness Of eastern cities.
Much of those Eastern States is
mountainous, and the sterility oi
New England has become 4 pro-
verb. Considering our wide scope
of country suited to agriculture
we can safely expect the agricul.
tural products of the Pacific North
west will rival and exceed the pro-
ductions of the Atlantic States,
we have named, though it may be
many years before the primeval
forests shall be cleared away to
make farms, as has been done in
all the country east of the Miss
issppl valley. That time will
come, and the dense forests
of Western Oregon and Washing
ton, within century, will be con-
verted into productive fields. That
will be when labor shall have
become more abundant, and when
an industrial era shall have dawned
on the Western shore, to wake to
life and motion our vast water
powers.
New England has no mines o.
any consequence, and little good
soil, but its mountains pour down
streams that are utilized to turn
the wheels of countless manufac
tories. All along our western val.
ieys, we possess the same natura'
wealth that makes New England
the workshop of the nation. Our
location is similar; our natura
facilities in that line are more
peculiar to US than than the same
are to New England, because
California possesses few such nat
ural powers, and the whole lowe
coast is comparatively destitute