Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1894-07-05
Improve the Country.

ldi &c amount vi lSally SoOu llilaOAS
lands within her borders. In years
gone by this region of Oregon, i'll
common with the rest of the Pacific
coast, experienced one of those
ephemeral things called a boom.
The only material difference be-
tween this boom and other booms,
was that our boom was based large
ly OH the completion and develop
ment of the Oregon Pacific railroad /.
The fate that overlook the O. P.
everybody knows. Outside of the
evil results that always follows an
overboom period, this region was
afflicted more seriously, towit:
The Hoggs, Hoags, Hogue's etal.,
who were the chief boomers of the
railroad also invested largely in
real estate which they bought, sold
and trafficked in at the most out
rageous prices. Land that was so
rough that goat had to be pro-
vided with an airbrake to pasture
on it, was greedily gobbled up at
prices ranging from $500 TO $1,000
per acre. Towns and additions
were staked off until the whole
country surrounding the Bay proper
was plated. Real estate brought
just what the seller was moved to
ask for it. The crash came, as it
was bound 70 come, and the bot
TOM fell outio Had the harm stop
ped there the couf'try could have
more easily recovered, but it did
not. These boom times created a
lot of fictitious values on farm,
fruit and grazing lands, and there
is where the incalculable mischief
has been done to the country. Men
became possessors of land and their
sole hope and wish is now to sell it
out at the old time boom prices.
1t cannot be done now and never
will be done again. The situation
had just as we'll be faced first as
last. Land in Lincoln county and
on Yaquina Bay is worth just ex-
actly in proportion to what it will
produce and no more. The man
that improves his land and makes
it productive will increase the value
just that much over his tieighbor
who does not improve, and who is
waiting to sell out. The sales of
land from now OH will be based on
productive value and not on what
the railroad intends doing. The
man who thinks that he can get
from $50 to $500 per acre for his
land on the strength of another
railroad boom will be laid in his
grave a disappointed man, even
though he live to the allotted three
score and ten, and is now a young
man. The man who desires to
sell, if he expects to sell, must put
the price down to what is the real
productive value of the land and no
more; and in a great many cases
this value is going to be many
times less that of the price now
asked by the owner.
We know that this kind of talk
is rank treason to many of the
residents Of Lincoln county; to
! those who have been led on, first
by unwise investments and then by
false hopes, but, unpleasant though
it may be, it is nevertheless true.
Values are low and will remain low
just so long as the present system
OF nonimprovement, that prevails
to large extent remains.
If values ever again raise ma
terially in this county it will be
through no real estate or railroad
boom, but through the steady in
crease Of products brought about
by the gradual improvement of the
country. The value of the future
will not come from the town Lei
boom, nor the railroad boom, but
will come as we dyke and cultivate
our tidelands, the richest and best
land God ever gave to the husband.
man; it will come as we plant OIL
hill land to the various kinds o.
fruit TO which the country is MOS
admirably adapted; it will come
from the numberless hop yards
tiat ought ard will be planted aud
tended in our beautiful mountain
valleys; it will come from the
numerous herds that Craze on the