The record-union., 1897-03-23

cannot raise a better quality of pork.
Notwithstanding conditions so favor
able to the establishment of dairy
farms and the production of dairy sta
pies even the home market is as yet but
poorly supplied by home industry, and
much money is sent out Of the State
every year for butter and cheese, in
return for which the importers offer an
article of very inferior quality.
In the article of condensed milk
alone a great market awaits the en-
terprise of manufacturers deriving
their resources from the valley of the
Willamette. More than hundred
thousand dollars worth of this staple
is consumed on the Pacific Coast and
within easy shipping distance of Pacific
Coast points. If this article should be
manufactured on this coast the manu-
facturer would be assured of a saving
of 81 on every 100 pounds in freight
rates. The milk in this form costs
about So a case or less, and the selling
price at wholesale is from $4 to &c.
No country is better adapted to in
tensified farming than the Willamette
Valley, and its first and best opportu
nifty is to convert it's farms of 500 and
600 acres into well-tilled farms of from
ten to 100 acres each. Not 20 per
cent. of the lands in the Willamette
Basin have been cleared, although it
is the oldest part of the State.
A highly cultivated country is often
peculiarly adapted to the production
of some one delicacy or necessity, and
it will enjoy almost a monopoly of that
production. This fact applies directly
to the Oregon farmer. In the Missis-
sippi Valley the lands are all alike,
deposited by the floods of ages from the
same sources. The farmer of Wiscon-
sin knows that his land is the same
as that of the planter in Mississippi,
and allowing for climatic variations
will produce the same. But the vol
canic ash and vegetable mold which
combine to make the valleys washed
down from the Cascades was primed
deep in the bowels of the earth, and
did not settle uniformly. On every
Oregon farm there is a diversity of
soil; one little spot will produce the
best Strawberries; just across the path
you will find poor berries but juicy
rhubarb; and so throughout the extent
of limited area these conditions al
ternate to give variety to the best prod
ucts of the soil.
PRODUCTS OF THE ORCHARD
OF course management is necessary
management and industry. If there
are any who imagine that they can
prosper and grow rich even in this ia
vored land without hard work and the
exercise of the old-fashioned virtues,
prudence and energy, they may as well
stay where they are. But if they set
tie here calculating to derive most of
their living off their land, raising a lit
tie fruit, what vegetables they need,
and by keeping their own cows, few
sheep, hogs and fowls, supplying that
first and best market for every farmer,
his own table, they will realize hand
somely on a minimum outlay of CAPT
tai and labor and will soon be able to
put by a comfortable surplus.
One Of the departments of the Ore
gon State Agricultural College is de-
voted to the science of horticulture,
and the entire valley ought in time to
become an orchard, not only because of
the abundant yield Of every tree in
Gigenous to the temperate zone, but be-
cause the fruit is of the finest quality.
There is every natural possibility that
the strip of country extending north
and south the entire length of the
State from fifty to 100 miles wide, bor
dering the Pacific Ocean, may become
one of the great fruit producing re-
eions of the world. Aside from the ap-
pie, fruit-growing is a comparatively
new industry; but there is activity
everywhere, and with the impetus that
this industry is receiveing from the
efforts of the State Horticultural So
ciety, there is no doubt that the val
ley of the Willamette will eventually
take it's place among the most famous
fruit districts of the United States.
The Oregon apple is as firm, as juicy
and keeps as well as any grown in
the United States. Oregon cider rivals
the most popular beverages for pri-
vate tables as well as for public bars.
A farmer in Benton County, rich re-
gion lying on the west bank of the Will
annette, says: I'm my orchard I have
few greenng trees from which I gath
cred between eight and nine boxes to
the tree that sold for 20 cents box,
making an average of 81 80 for each
tree. Counting seventy trees to the
acre. this gives a nice return of S525 to
the acre.
PLUMS, PEACHES AND GRAPES.
The plum ranks next in Importance.
The variety known as prunes do not
flourish in any of ths older States. The
trees are not productive and the fruit
is poor; but in this section of Oregon
this production promises the best re-
suits. The valleys of the Columbia
and Willamette are especially adapted
20 the Italian variety, and the sweeter
French prune grows best east Of the
Cascades. The Italian prune has the
special merit of being a fine dessert
fruit while fresh and at the same time
it bears shipment well. 1t carries to
New York or Boston after it is ripe,
and hundreds of carloads go East every
season, the demand increasing as the
fruit becomes better known. There
are several new varieties of which
grows from a half more to double the
size grown in the Eastern States.
Pears of the largest size and the
finest flavor are grown, and samples
are on exhibition in many places that
have been in successful competition
with the best from other States. The
climate, soil and altitude seem all to
be favorable, and only the market is
required to make this branch of the
fruit-raising industry source Of i'm
mense revenue.
Peaches, apricots and nectarines do
well, and there is surplus, but it has
heretofore been absorbed by the mining
regions of the Rocky Mountains. None
on the neaches Shinped in from CalifOr-