Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1905-08-25
GARDEN SPOT OF THE WORLD
Portland Newspaper Man Speaks OF
willamette Valley in Terms
of Highest Praise.

from the East to accept a position on
the editorial staff of the Oregonian,
pays the following glowing tribute to
the Willamette Valley:
Most of the Eastern people who
visit the Exposition are deeply i'm
pressed by the wonderful mountains,
the great gorges and the glorious fields
and forests which are spread out as a
perpetual panorama, Just now the
farming sections of the Willamette
valley are at their loveliest; wheat
and oats have been harvested, and the
stubble fields CLEAN golden in the
sunshine; orchards are beginning to
bend beneath the ripening fruit truck
gardens, of remarkable size, show
symmetrical acres of vegetables
onion rows half mile long, lettuce in
fiye-acre patches, and cabbages so big
that from a railroad train they sug-
gest field Of cultivated cacti. And
there are the hops-not to be omitted
in any description of Willamette Val
ley farming. Oregon raises more
hops than any other state. To the
visitor from the East hop yard is
new thing. The vines are trained to
grow up strings supported by posts set
here and there, and wires running in
both directions from the posts support
the strings. The vines Chamber over
the wires and strings until a hop yard
at this season looks like a great grape
arbor at a distance In the fall the
hop crop will be gathered, and the
hops will be dried out in the curious
little hop houses, which look very
much like small country churches
with belfries.
"Most of the visitors make side trips
out to the hop districts, which begin
very near Portland and extend all the
way down the valley, for perhaps 200
miles. The Willamette Valley is about
80 miles wide, on the average, and
forms one Of the most magnificent
agricultural regions on the globe. No
irrigation is required there is plenty
of rain, and the crops grow in pro-
fusion without artificial urging,
Where the ground is not cleared and
the trees are not SO close together as
to keep out the sunlight and divert
the showers, huge ferns grow thickly
to height of six or seven feet, in
many places completely hiding the
ground. One of these ferns affords
plenty of shade for a cooling couple or
a weary wayfarer.
"In the palaces of the Exposition
one may find information as to farm
ing and forestry in Oregon and her
sister state which is we'll worth study
ing. The size of the potatoes will
cause you to gasp, and the plums and
cherries are so big that the average
person refuses at first to believe that
they are plums and cherries. Horti-
culturists have scientific theories to
account for the bigness of Oregon
fruit, but the native son of the state
will say to you;
"'Huh! There's nothing remark
able about it. What made these trees
here along the coast grow to such size
is feet in diameter, some of them
Plenty of rainfall Nothing else.
Same as to fruit and vegetables. We
have rain enough to make Chis a par
adise, and that's just what it is.
Summer in Portland and its vicin-
itv is ideal as to weather conditions.
1t is quite possible that if one should
stand out in the sunshine from II
noon to 2 p. M, with head uncovered,
he would become almost as warm as
the average person becomes in New
York at any season of the day with an
umbrella and fan, but the person
who feels no sense Of homesickness
for Eastern heat is never put to any
unusual efforts in order to keep COOL
This is one of the conditions that con-
tribute to the success of the Lewis and
Clark Exposition, which has passed
it's first million in attendance and IS
now we'll into the second quarter OF It's
second million. "