The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-04-05
OUR COUNTY TIDE LANDS.

From the way that people from
the Missippi valley write when inquir-
ing about "tIde land" and dyke
land" and "beaver dam" land, it is
evident that they have heard OF its
existence here, but do not quite IN
derstand what it is.
To briefly explain is tho purpose
of this short article.
A county with great water frontage
and cut up by numerous navigable
streams, Us Clatsop or Pacific county,
has, on the banks and for some dis
! tance back from these streams, large
tracts Of land that in a state Of ma
ture are subject to overflow by the
tide.
These lands are not under water,
nor are they made up OF sand and
boulders left by freshets from the
hills.
They are only partially covered and
at low tide are bare, and are COM
posed of the most fertile constituents
of any soil known to man.
Everyone knows how rich in fertil-
izing elements sea water is.
These tracts of land are the result
of millions of years of deposit by the
ocean of all the rich material it car
ries. At the rate of half an inch a
century the great ocean in its daily
ebb and food has deposited on the
borders of Clatsop and Pacific coun-
ties in the last two or three millions
of years an inexhaustible and un-
fathomable layer of richest soil. On
this and with this is mingled decayed
vegetation and scourings of powdered
granite, sand and basalt from the
hills, brought down by the streams,
the whole forming a compound that
for fertility and inexaustible store of
crop possibilities, is unexcelled.
In their natural state a luxuriGnt
growth OF wild grass and shrubbery
grows.
But when the iodine and salt and
kelp of the ocean are kept off, the
land needs only TO be tickled with a
hoe, to laugh with harvest Such
potatoes, oats, turnips, hay, beets,
carrots, parsnips, timothy, rs the
land raises, would surprise folks who
never saw it.
IHE ASTORIAN never eXaggerates,
and always expects to be believed, and
for this reason we hesitate TO say the
amount of yield on these reclaimed
tide lands.
The truth would sound like ro-
nance, but five tons Of timothy, 100
bushels oats, COO bushels of potatoes
to the acre are so common rs to ex-
cite no remark.
And this, too, year after year; the
more the soil is stirred the more it
increases in fertility.
The richest soil the writer ever saw
was on a 40-acre patch he owned
years ago near TT. Dodge, Iowa, on
the bank Of the Des Moines river.
The black loan was eight feet deep.
The soil here on these tide lands is as
much ahead of that black loan as
that is ahead of the soil in Maine or
New Brunswick.
And, again, there IS no failure Of
crops. Crops never fail anywhere in
Oregon.
A great deal of this land has been
dyked in this county; a great deal Is
now being dyked. These dykes are
built of the soil itself. sometimes sod
ded; ditch is dug, the clay is hesped
up, forming 4 continuous ridge. The
best dykes are sixteen feet wide at
the base, tapering TO about five feet
wide at the top; the dyke is about six
or seven feet high, forming contin-
uous fence against the cncroachments
of old ocean. As the dyke settles it
hardens, and in time becomes covered
with grass, and a permanent feature
of the landscape Outside IS heard
the swash Of the waves, and IS seen
the swiftly moving sails and steamers:
inside, fat cattle, fields of tall grass,
acre after acre of fine crops.
The dykes cost from 81 to $3.50 a
rod to build and have to be attended
to: muskrats and gophers, and an &C.
casional crUmble, require vigilance
to prevent 4 disastrous break.