The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-08-24
A WORD FROM OREGON.
Tom Richardson Tells of Northern
Country and Crops.

| Portland. ore, Aug. 24.-Kansas
produced last year more wheat than
was ever grown in any state in the
Union in one year and gained interna-
/ tional recognition as consequence.
4 In the Pacific Northwest we have a
great wheat section known as the I'm
/ land Empire" embracing portions of
4 Oregon, Washington and Idaho, which
4 will this year produce something like
/ fifty million bushels of VIII eat, and the
yield per acre would surprise the
| choicest wheat growing portions of
| Kansas in her best years.
Having been a resident of Sumner
county, Kansas, which for a number
of years was the banner wheat coun-
/ ty of the SunfiOwer state. / have been
considerably interested in wheat
! throughout the state of Oregon. A
few weeks ago 1 visited Pendleton,
Oregon, and went out to see what is
known as a combine" work. This
machine, either pulled by 20 horses
or by steam, cuts, threshes and sacks
the wheat as it goes along, while it
gathers and dumps the straw at the
will of the operator so that it can be
easily stacked.
Chicago being higher than in foreign
markets, several millions of bushels
have gone east by rail, for the first
time in years.
| One thing that will surprise the
Kansas wheat grower is that all wheat
! is sacked here because most of it goes
/ by water around the Horn, across the
equator twice, and if it were in bulk
would sweat twice and be badly dam
aged.
Another interesting thing is yield
of wheat estimated at d ton and over
! per acre-in fact, yields of 40 BUSH
els and As bushels are not unusual,
and wheat has been harvested this
year which melted 65 bushels per
acre, many crops being reported on
sod land yielding from 20 to 80 BUSH
els per acre.
The river counties of Oregon have
this year turned off the greatest crop
of wheat ever produced and this is true
in the face of the fact that there have
decade. One county in Oregon raises
one per cent of the entire wheat crop
of the United States.
Hops are a very important crop in
this state, and the high prices this year
are making the farmers happy. oregon
produced better cherries and berries
this year than for many years-in fact,
they were considered by good judges to
be the best ever grown anywhere in the
world Black cherries and the large
pink and white variety called Royal
Ann" were in many instances as large
as English walnutS, and as there was
no rain throughout the fruit belt the
fruit was absolutely perfect The or
binary cherries which retailed for
long time at cents per box, or in many
instances six boxes for a quarter, were
twenty-five per cent larger than the
choicest cherries of the middle states.
The strawberry season extends over
long period. and there is often a second
crop in October.
The mildness of the climate in the
Pacific Northwest and the fact that the
state is ever green and you have to cut
your grass every month in the year
comes as a result of the Japan current.
1t gets much colder in northern Texas
or southern Arkansas during the win
ter season than it does along the coast
D., a. I'D ct f4n
same time the city of Portland, for in
stance, is surrounded by mountains
literally white with snow.
The eastern portions of oregon, Wash
ington and Idaho are being made valu-
able in the production of alfalfa and
fruits, as we'll as other crops. and are
now receiving much immigration.
oregon is now attracting as much or
more attention than any other state on
the Pacific coast, and every community
in the state is actively at work in push
ing forward its local interests as well
as helping to develop the state as a
whole. The active commercial and in
dustrial organizations of the state are
merged together in what is known as
the Oregon Development League, with
headquarters in this city.
OF course the timber interests are of
enormous value, oregon having more
standing timber than any other state in |
the union.
Next year will be a banner year for |
the Pacific Northwest, and there will !
be given in this city from June 1 to
October Is an exposition known as the |
Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition |
and Oriental fair, upon which five mil |
lions of dollars will be expended, and |
Portland gave the cities of America a |
pattern IN civic enterprise by raising all |
the money necessary to finance this ex- |
position in forty-eight- hours. There |
has been considerable talk of a special |
Kansas train to come to this fair, and |
certainly hope it will be reality. for /
this is the finest summer climate I have |
ever seen. TOM RICHARDSON.