The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-10-02
OREGON STATE FAIR.
AN AGRICULTURAL REVIEW
ortho s,a,s-n. Clmpb,lr. obur,suOar-T
Live stoel and Cereal E1AibIt-ExtraordluarJ
Hhest-sh,tp and wool Busius..--A
Trip on ihs Columbia Rirtr.

/
Special Correspondence Qj the IRto1issNor.
STEAMER "HARvEsr QuEES," COLUMBIA
, RIvER, OREGON, September 22-My last
letter was from Salem, the capital Of Ore.
gon, where stopped off on my way up
from the pouthern part OF the State to look
in on the Safe Fair. l had expected more
than realized in regard to said fair. Com.
pared to the fairs on Wheeling Island, or
to those OF your Belmont or Washington
county neighbor5, it was second class. 1t
fell short in live stock where l had been
led to suppose it would show up WE'LL
There is a great deal Of good farm stock in
Oregon, and there were some good speci-
mems Of horseaesh, some very fair speci.
mems OF cattle and some tolerable specimens
OF sheep on exhibition, but nothing to brag
OF in any OF these departments. witnessed
a trial OF speed on the track between three
year.olds, and the winning horse won in
mile heats OF 247 and 2:51. The cattle
most numerously represented were the
short horns, and in the live sheep, the
French merincs. There were, however,
some good specimens Of Cottswold sheep.
The merinos, was told, sheared s and 10
pounds, and the wosl was worth,
unwashed, is and 20 cents. They wash no
sheep in Oregon. Three.year-old ewes are
worth and dollars per head As a rule
sheep depend on pasture the year round In
the Willamette Valley, where the principal
portion OF them are owned, and the pss
ture at this time OF year (the dry season. is
poor enough.
The census statistics OF Oregon do not
show that her sheep shear anything like 5
or 10 pounds on an average. In 1880 she
bad loss, ,lG2 sheep and her wool product
was 5 1854 pounds, or q little over FIVE
pounds per head. West Virginia had in
the game year 674,SG0 sheep, with wool
product OF 1851 AL pounds, or q little over
an average Of four pounds per head.
CEREAL DISPLAY.
1t was in the wheat display, and also in
oats, that the fair shons out conspicuously.
This was, all in all, the finest display |
ever witnessed. And this was especially
true of the exhibit Of George Belshaw, oil
lane county, the man who took the pre-.
MUM at the Philadelphia Centennial In
1876. REMARKED particularly his specimens
Of Canada Club, Hudson Bay" and "Vel.
vet" wheats, yielding 40 to 45 bushels per
acre and weighing 65 to 6S pounds per
Dushel. The berry is remarkably plump,
white and hard. For this wheat gets 20
cents per bushel at his depot, l24 miles
from Portland, and it pays 81 cents per
bushel freight 10 Portland, selling at that
place for less than dollar. The farmers
Of Oregon have no home markets for their
cereals, ss have the farmers OF the great
manufacturing region Of the Ohio Valley,
and they are forced to depend on Liver.
pool quotations. 1t costs about IS cents
per buahel to carry wheat around Cape
Horn to Liverpool from Portland, beside
insurance and interest. Verify the Kings
cheese, in this case, sis consumed in the
pariog Of it"
/ talked good deal with Mr.. Bslshaw
as did also with Mr.. ]. 7. Apperson, the
President OF the State fair, in regard to
farming in Oregon, particularly in their
own valley OF the Willamette, thecream
land OF the State. They confirmed to me
the statements OF Mr.. Sutherland, OF the
Umpqua Valley south Of them, that az
class the farmersof Oregon are poor farm.
ers, inclined to be lazy and thrlttless.
Practically they know nothing Of the rota'
ton OF crops, nothing Of fertilization,
summer following or undertaking. They
spent less than $1,000 in the census year
Tor all class OF fertilizers, while West Vir.
gipia, where iarmipgis poor enough, paid
out Si78,OOO. 1t Is no wonder that so many
OF their farms are mortgaged. Said farms
need to be, aud probably will be, sold out at
sheriff's sale and divided up among class
OF thrifty small farmers.
THE GREAT AMERICAN RMIoRAToR.
Speaking OF farmers, met with curl.
ous specimen in that line in the person OF
| ]. @. Spray, OF the Umpqna Valley, who
might be called the Great American Emf.
orator. He has emigrated % times in his
life, starting variously from New York,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas,
Californis, Oregon, aud | know not how
many other States. He crossed the plains
from Iowa many years ago TO Oregon, with
one OK team. Stopped few years and
then emigrated TO Kansqs, stopped there
until the grssshoppers struck the Stale and
then re.emigrated 10 Oregon. quoted to
him the old proverb about the rolling stone
that gathers no mOss, aud he in turn quoted
| TO me the other one about the setting hen
that never gets fat. He said that with one
or two exceptions he had always made
travelling expenses by selling ont; that he
had gratided his proclivity for seeing dit
ferent parts Of the country and that he
still had good farm left, which, by the
way, he was now desirous to sell with
view to emigrating to E'1tern Oregon.
WHEAT STATISTICS.
While at the State house in Salem |
1 thought / would look into the
statistics on the wheat question, as had
heard so much about forty and ftty bush.
els per acre since had been in the State. l
found that in 1880 Oregon raised 74SO0OO
bushels Of wheat, on 1907 acres OF
vround, which would give an aversgs pro.
duction OF about l6S bushels PER acre:
West Va, which Is a ersztng State, raised
I,O0l,7ll bushels in the same year on $685.
O8S acres, or, say, l0l s bushels per acre.
Wheat, and wool aud oats are the threa
crops Of Oregon on which siIe depends,
especially the two first, although she does
well on some OF the root crofs, particularly
potatoes, et which she raised $50 $50
bushels in.lsSO They sau this year in :hc
country towns at about 20 cen's per bushell,
the crop being scaut. Ordinarily they sell
at "iouf bits," as they invariably call a hall
, dollar out here.
Corn does not figure as one Of the grain
crops OF orgnn. She only Produced l2e,
s69 bushels 10 1850 i sells Tor a6ont the
same prios as wheat. Hogs arc rot iAtIened
, on il. They sara fed whea: a good deal
oitener than c1rn. TIE summer nights
are ton cool in Ofgon for corn.
They tell me that hrYs at six ctnis, per
ponnd net farmers SLIGO to 81 95 for their
wheat This being tht Case am surprised
-. - 80. .,,,,, hoSa In tho pOtlnlFy rhpftI