The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1904-09-15
WHAT OREGON
FARMS GROW

of the Northwest Rural Spirit:
1--WE 0regonians are go well satisfied
with our own state, its charms in seen
cry, climate, soil, opportunities and so
ciety, social advantages are so familiar
to us that we forget to think what i'm
pressions Oregon makes on newcomer.
And yet we are all set on giving invita-
tions, and when we meet, after weeks
OF preparation and advice from all the
experts we can get hold of, to form an
Oregon Development League, the best
we can do is TO induce all our fellow
citizens to join the circle and invite, in
vite, and still more widely invite.
"But general invitations don't go very
far in this world. In private life we al
ways disregard as mere polite form of
words the common expressions, We
shall be glad TO see you, Il hope you
will cal ), and so on. But il you have a
vacant bit of land near you in country
or city ,and if tits matter Of consequence
10 you to get neighbors, and good ones,
too, how different you set about it. No
general invitations to Dick, Tom and
Harry now You stop TO think, and
take counsel together, what the induce
ments are TO the people you want TO
come and settle by you.
"Let US apply similar rules to our
selves as agents for all OF Oregon, out
side of the little, 30 little, bit OF it we
may one Of us own. First, our descrip-
tion must be absolutely truthful--not
overdrawn. II is not the exceptional
yield OF 90 bushels, or even 63 bushels
0f wheat to the acre on some favored
spot (such as we heard of from one Of
our Eastern Oregon friends at that same
Development league fneeting), but the
general average Of 25 bushels to the acre
on the ordinary farm, rising to A. bush
els on the selected high priced land,
which it is both honest and safe to cir
culate about those northeastern Oregon
counties. The strict truth is good
enough for our visitors who come from
$50 to SIS land, yielding up to 20 bush
els OF wheat per acre in good years. II
our newcomer can double his acreage
aud come within q little of doubling his
product for the price of each acre he
sells in the state he Is leaving, he will
not find fault.
And when you add to the strictly
business attraction that he will leave
behind him the, blizzard, the tornado,
the early froets, the months OF stock
housing and feeding, the poor and scanty
water, your invitation begins TO count
for something.
People in the East have got notion
hard TO get rid OF that the market prices
for our products are 30 far below theirs.
Let us not forget, then, TO tell what we
get for our wheat. think IT Is telling
point that, after allowing liberal cost,
including plowing, narrowing, seeding,
harvesting, sacking and taking TO mar
ket and depot, and after including in
this cost an allowance for interest on a
reasonable purchase price (say $3.50
per acre for the farm and about $500 for
plant, outfit and implements), we ex-
pect TO net about 25 cents bushel.
LET 1t be known also that in these
wheat regions we are generally still in
bondage to the summer.fallowing sys-
TEN which keeps half the wheat land
out Of crop every year. But forget not
10 cay that field peas and leguminous
plants generally thrive well, and that
there is every inducement for an enter
prising man TO vary more and more the
products Of the farm.
$50 mary OF our newcomers are used to
clear skies and wide horizons that the
hills and woodlands OF Western Oregon
seem TO confine and shut them in.
"But most of these newcomers have
bought these through tickets on which
they can travel up to the northeast cor
ner OF Oregon, and then along its north.
ern edge to Portland, before they turn
south through the willamette and
Rogue River valleys to our southern
boundary. They have 10 pass through
the fruit regions, though, and in Hood
River we have record OF how district
Ia advertised by its products.
Next TO the good reports that are
sent back East by family which has
already ventured the move to the North
west, been well used, have verified what
they had heard, and wish their old
friends and neighbors to join them.
The best advertisement is to see sold in
distant states, even aoross continent
and ocean, our products. Hood River
apples, for instance, sold at the top price
and known everywhere. No chance OF
overstocking that market. The Hood
River people are helping the state as
well as themselves. Newtown Pippins
and Spitzenburgs at 81 a box in London
and Paris, and $3.50 in New York, mean
over 81 q box to the Hood River grower
and with only four boxes to q tree and
20 trees TO the acre, how much does that
come to? How is that brought about?
BY good soil and climate, good trees,
clean cultivation, careful picking and
packing, and a market article Of which
the value maintains the price, and all
going under that name up TO the stand
ard.
"After all, that Is the best of Oregon.
Go where you will in the state and
adapt your industry to the conditions
you find. Put both work and brains
into it. Try for the best, and surely
you will get it. And there Is no exag-
geration about this statement, either.
"And while i am giving advice, ! will
put in just one more piece, and then go
on Don't spread out too widely. The
returns in pocket ut the end of the year
will be larger from q smaller piece of
and, we'll titled, fully stocked and
than from much larger farm,
orchard or ranch badly cultivated and
lalf stocked. Let some one else have
hat other bit OF land and turn loose
On IL.
''When our visitors reach Portland,
we know what impression they each
and all receive, The trouble with the
Portlanders is that they don't see them
selves and their city as others see them,
1t takes visitor to open up about the
beautiful location of the city, its solid
and prosperous look, the traffic in its
streete, the costly buildings, the quickly
passing and ever-crowded street cars,
the lovely parks, the exposition grounds
only now beginning TO show their beau
ties, the broad river courses, above
bridge, with the busting steamboats,,
and the tall masts and rigging of the big
ships cutting the skyline below, The
visitor takes his car rides north, south
and east, The Portlander generally
confines his travel to the one route by
which he comes to and from his daily
work, So we are hardly alive to the
growth and attractiveness of our own
city, in every direction.
"0f course, business chances abound,
with 80 great territory to draw on,
with the hitherto unoccupied portions OF