The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-04-28
THE ASTORIA REGION As A 10
CATION FOR SETTLERS,

tier would do well to keep clearly in
mind in deciding where to locate:
One is, to avoid if possible a locality
where the marketing of his products
is at the mercy of single line of rail-
road. His first aim should be to
secure q place where there are already
exists, either by two lines of road, or
by water communication, the COM
petition which will leave the value
of his labor and products independent
Of monopoly. That this is as essen
tial in our western country as in the
east can be proved by citing an in
stance which recently came under our
notice. a farm of rs acres in western
Oregon, cleared and under cultivation,
beautifully level, as fine piece ofland
as could be found, was placed at the
disposal of an energetic farmer, free of
rent for two years. 1t was within 60
miles, by rail, of large city and ship
ping port. The farmer put in exclusive
of buildings, eight hundred dollars for
tools, seed, stock for working the
farm, ETC., and for two years raised
large amounts of peas, green corn,
and other table vegetables. For two
years in succession the railroad re-
fused to give rates that would allow
more than three cents per hundred
lbs. profit; tons of the produce rotted
IN his store houses; and in two years
he retired from his venture, penniless.
About the same amount of the same
crops, an equal distance from that
city, where competition by water
existed, gave other men a start in life
that practically made them indepen-
dent.
Competition, in Oregon, exists only
in three localities; first, where the Or
egon Railway & Navigation company
and the Northern Pacific lie together;
second, in the Willamette valley, where
the river, the Southern Pacific and
the Oregon Pacific compete; third
along the lower Columbia river, where
a dozen competing lines of steamboats,
and sailing crafts are possible. The
first named can hardly be perman-
emily counted on as having competi-
ton; the second, the Willamette re-
gion, is highly developed and the
price of lands near the river or rail-
roads is already up to eastern prices;
the third, the lower Columbia country
tributary to Astoria, is the only re-
gion of low priced lands now left in
the northwest where genuine compe-
tition must always be possible
Another proposition the settler
should keep in mind is that he should
locate as near the seaport as possible.
He should ask himself why he should
all his life pay several dollars per
ton for transporting his produce to
a seaport, when he can permanently
avoid anything but trihing charge,
by selecting his farm at point near
that seaport. Yet here to-day we
find the lowest priced lands of all the
northwest, almost at the city lines of
Astoria, the most seaward of all the
seaports of Oregon, Yaquina alone
excepted. The present status of the
Astoria country stands as one of the
most remarkable anomalies in the
development of the United States.
Nothing but the powerful opposition
of the great railroad companies,
backed by surveys intended to show
how Astoria could not be reached,
would ever have penned this seaport
off in its present solitary corner Ulti-
mately, it will be benefited by this.
The booms that have visited and re-
tarded other places by their forcing
processes, have avoided Astoria and
its surrounding country, and are
leaving them free to grow more health
fully and permanently.
With canal open probably at
Nicaragua no settler in the northwest
(those of Yaquina excepted) will be
as near Europe or the Atlantic ports
o. the United States, as he who has
settled along the lower Columbia.
In looking for reasons why the
farming lands have not been de-
veloped more largely heretofore, we
find partial reason in the timber on
such lands, together with the absence
Of near market, by rail, and for rail-
road purposes, for such timber. This
condition is now being altered; the
steamboat lines, the local demands of
Astoria, and the demand from more
remote markets will hereafter cause
wood and timber to be sought after,
and increased rapidly each year, the
amount of land brought into q state
of cultivation. Saw logs are not sub
iect to attaets of the teredo, as in the
salt water of the Sound; hence the
(; ogging industries of the Columbia