Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1898-01-14
COTTON FOR THE NORTHWEST.
New Crop to BE Tried East OF Cascades
Other Plants viii BE Tried.

COTTON next season. Their cotton CrOD
will probably not ''bear" the market
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 will 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
tar-sighted scheme OF President Mohler.
ii. G. Judson,w 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 great
extent in his operations by the agricul-
tural colleges of Oregon and Washing
ton.
/ Cotton is successfully grown in the
| panhandle of Texas, ut attitudes rang
, ing from 900 TO 500 feet above the
sea, where trosts occur in April. In
some parts of Eastern Oregon frost has
been absent through the entire year.
Portions OF Umatilla county are espe-
cially 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
i'll Wasco, Sherman, Morrow and UNA
tilla counties, of Oregon, and Whitman
and Adams counties, of Washington.
While the cotton plant will stand a
great deal of moisture, it can also en-
dure drought. 1t sends roots deep
into the ground. In many places where
wheat is not reliable crop, or cannot
be grown at all on account of the lack
of moisture, it is believed cotton will
flourish. If so, it will solve the irriga-
tion problem for those sections. A
thorough test will be made the coming
season.
Among the other things in view by
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
citic 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 in
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 a thorough investigation of the
possibilities of dairying and raising
livestock under different conditions
than now prevail-conditions that will
> admit OF 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
$ a tree that is said to have redeemed a
: portion of France from desert conditions
ages ago-a gum tree that is native of
Assyria. 1t is reasonable to suppose
7 that the tree would be valuable in the
a dry sections of the Inland Empire, and
!. it will be given trial there.
: The mechanical device of Boise
j. man for raising water from streams for
d irrigatng purposes will also be thor
oughly tested 1t consists of cylin-
der, on the outside of which are buck
u cts that fold automatically, and the
G contrivance 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
e of the farming country and not go to
0 the Yukon at all, stopping to plant
their own vines and fig trees, under
which they will repose in comfort and
e happiness, while the goldhunters suffer
: the hardships and uncertainties of the
chase for sudden affluence.
8 In speaking OF the proposed enter.
prise prominent business man said
recently:
T MANY will go up the Alaska coast
n and return to Oregon and Washington
{ to make their homes. Still others will
: 90 to the gold fields and then return tc
= engage in more sober pursuits. Prac
9 tically all will have to pass through
the Northwest country, and the triI
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
, y, and progress are not in the dim dis