Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1898-01-13
COTTON FOR THE NORTHWEST.
New Crop to lie Tried East OF Cascades
other Ilants viii BE Tried.


cotton next season. Their cotton error
Will probably not "bcaI" the marke,
the first year, but there is no telling
what effect cotton will have on the IN.
dustrial conditions of the future. The
cotton production OF this year viii be
under the fostering care of the Oregon
Railroad & Navigation Company, which
has just opened an industrial depart
ment that will experiment with various
things to develop the country reached
by its transportation lines. This is a
far sighted scheme of President Mohler.
ii. G. Judson, who has had considerable
experience in such matters in the East,
has been put at the head of the depart
ment. He will be guided to a gre IT
extent in his operations by the agricul.
tural colleges of Oregon and Washing
ton.
Cotton is successfully grown in the
panhandle of Texas, at attitudes rang
ing from 1000 to IL 500 feet above the
sea, where tross occur in April. In
some parts of Eastern Oregon frost has
been absent through the entire year.
Portions of Umatlla county are espe-
ciallv favored in this aspect. The ex-
periments with cotton will be made in
the arid and semi-arid sections Of East
ern Oregon and Eastern Washington
in Wasco, Sherman, Morrow and UNA
tilla counties, of Oregon. and Whitman
and Adams counties, OF Washington
While the cotton plant will stand Il
great deal of moisture, it can also en-
dure drought. 1t sends roots deep
into the ground. In many places where
wheat is not a reliable crop, or cannot
he grown at all on account of the lack
of moisture, it is believed cotton will
flourish. If so. it will so,ve the irriga-
tion problem for those sections. A
thorough test will be made the coming
season.
Among the other things in view Ivy
the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Com
pany's industrial department is the
introduction of tobacco raising. A
considerable colony of Cubans in Florida
are negotiating to come out to the Pa
cific Northwest to raise and manu-
facture tobacco. and the parts of Ore
gon and Washington lying east of the
Cascade mountains are believed to pos
sess all of the conditions suited to the
business. The destruction of the trade
in Cuba has turned the attention of
these people to other fields of operation,
and they have sent agents here to look
the matter up. Martinez, the great
cigar man of Key West, examined the
country east of the mountains recently,
and he did not doubt that tobacco of a
superior quality could be produced III
the vicinity of Blalock, in Gillian
county.
The production of forage plants in
the midland Empire will also engage
the attention of this move for industrial
development. Incidental to this will
come thorough investigation of the
possibilities of dairying and raising
jV9eAock under different conditions
than now prevail-conditions that will
admit of a fuller development of the
country. A number of new trees will
also be experimental with, to see if
they will not have the effect of precipi-
tating moisture, so as to make arabic
areas now arid. Among the exotics is
] tIet liidt Is SRiu W nave TeuccIueu Il
portion of France from desert conditions
ages ago-a gum tree that is native of
Assyra. 1t is reasonable to suppose
that the tree would be valuable in the
dry sections OF the Inland Empire, and
it Will be given a trial there.
The mechanical device of Boise
man for raising water from streams for
irrigating purposes will also be thor
oughly tested. 1t consists of cylin-
der, on the outside of which are buck
cts that fold automatically, and the
contrvance is said to work well in a
current so slow even as two miles an
hour.
The excitement over gold in Alaska
will bring thousands and thousands of
men, many OF whom will for the first
time see the great natural advantages
of the farming country and not go to
the Yukon at all, stopping to plant
their own vines and fig trees, under
which they will repose in comfort and
happiness, while the goldhunters suffer
the hardships and uncertainties of the
chase for sudden affluence.
In speaking of the proposed enter
prise a prominent business man said
recently:
MANY will go up the Alaska coast
and return to Oregon and Washington
to make their homes. Still others will
90 to the gold fields and then return to
engage in more sober pursuits. Prac-
tically all will have to pass through
the Northwest country, and the trip
will educate them. A new era is OPEN
ing for these states, and the far-seeing
and energetic ones are preparing to
meet the new conditions. Prosperity
and progress are not in the dim dis
lance, but are at the door, and it is
common sense and business sagacty to
take these steps for opening and devel-
oping the resources of the country"
Northwest Notes.
A Coos county paper says that there
are number of Chinese pheasants in
the vicinity of Remote, in that county.
The close of 1897 witnessed an i'm
provement in Olympia trade Of at least
20 per cent over the corresponding
period Of 1896.
Garfield has shipped more than 20
carloads of apples to the mining camps
this season, besides large quantities of
pears and other fruits.
Professor +. L. Washburn, biologist
at the university of Oregon, has for
some time been in correspondence with
the commissioner Of fish and fisheries
at Washington, d. c., to secure an adj