The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1883-07-31
The Dailp AStnrtan.
Wheat and Salmon.

ol present interest ne salmon
pack is unusually large: the wheat
crop almost a full one: this in the
face Of contrary predictions. The
price Of the one Is directly pro-
portioned to the price OF the other.
High wheat means dear bread,
and an increased demand for
salmon in the English market. On
Nov. ], 50, wheat was S1.775 per
GENITAL in San Francisco; now, it is
SI57; in Liverpool, wheat shows
shrunken values, averaging now
about S2.25 per GENITAL: the prices
Of salmon illustrate our PROPOSE
tion that wheat and salmon rise
and fall together.
Astoria, Portland and New Ia
coma are interested in wheat ship
ments. On the assumption that
the wheat yield OF the Northwest
will always be of great magnitude
and be eagerly sought IN Liver
pool, "great expectations arise in
the minds OF many. 1t is by no
means certain that North Pacific
coast wheat will overshadow other
productions. The constant cult
walton of wheat impoverishes the
ground, and sooner or later the
Eastern Oregon and Washington
farmer will learn TO diversity his
crop. The constant cultivation of
wheat cngenders the same spirit
that any other form Of gambling
does, and a gamblers fate awaits
the speculation. Again, it is evil
dent from our geographical posi-
ton that we can never expect to
be formidable competitor to In
dia. Russia or Canada. The mex
orable law of freights precludes
the idea. 1t costs too much to
get Walla Walla wheat to Liver
pool to expect favorable results as
compared with the illimitable
areas now being opened up
in British possessions in both
hemispheres. These remarks
apply purely to export. Our
wonderful increase in population
entails a correspondingly increas-
ing consumption, and insures
home demand. The completion of
a road to Astoria that should tap
the Willamette valley. will tend to
equalize matters in this direction
as much as anything else.
With salmon, our present pros
perity is more intimately con-
nected. Every season the busi-
ness centers more and more at
Astoria; we have not as yet seen
that annual contribution to the
worlds literature that emanates
from the Portland board OF trade,
and do not know if that honorable
body still claim salmon as Port
land product, but believe that the
above statement is not susceptible
of successful contradiction.
The salmon season that closes
to-day, has presented some curl
Gus features, whose effect will be
more apparent in April 'S4 than
they are now. The bull and bear
movement has been more appar-
ent during the last four months
than at any other time since the
business assumed proportions; the
price OF the raw material exhibited
extraordinary fluctuation, and the
result of the pack though not
wholly surprise is far from being
wholly satisfactory. The pack of
'S1-540,000 cases-was unpre-
cedented, and when $4,000 cases
was announced for 80 the pre-
sumption was that the long pro-
phesied failure was at hand, and
that the Columbia salmon were
"giving out" The result of the
season which closes to-day seems
to indicate contrary state of
affairs. But in reckoning Oh the
source of the 100000 cases which
represents the pack of '63 it
must be remembered that never
before was there so much gear in
the water, nor was the salmon
fshed for with such tireless assidu-
ity. Seventy-fve cents, ninety
cents, and even one dollar a fish,
regardless of size, was the incen-
tive to the fisherman, and with the
exception of the last three weeks
of this month, the presumption is
that the river was pretty well
cleaned of salmon. The project
of establishing hatchery, so ear
nestly advocated by THE Asro-
IIAN, should not be allowed to 90
by the board; the idea is in analo-
gy with former experience and