Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-01-02

to the absence of freezing tempera-
ture. This is an ideal dairying coun-
try, az our b~utter.makers require
neither ice in summer nor artificial
heat in winter. But besides dairying
and farming such as you have, this re-
gion can boast Of a number Of big
money crops, all risen to the magni-
tude of special industries. We ship
from this state from four TO six mill
ion dollars worth of hops. The hop
grower produces for 9 cents a pound
a finished product which he sells in ad-
vance at % to % cents a pound. The
Burbank potato is a staple, thousands
of carloads going from Texas to Brit
ish Columbia and throughout the in
termountain region. Prunes are grown
on a large scale, one firm at Salem
handling 100 carloads a season. Our
apple shipments are increasing each
year, few of the choicest carloads
stopping this side of New York, many
going to England. Wool and mohair
are staple products. Mining and the
I lumber industry are in their infancy.
Our county is at present engaged in
building a wagon road into a group of
mines whose output of copper, lead and
silver will be simply ~incalculable. The
forest of western Oregon has barely
had a little brush trimmed off it's
edges. Other big.money crops are
Strawberries, small fruits, cherries,
and last, but not least, wool and mo-
hair. The Angora goat thrives to per
lection, and large bands of these hardy
animals are run on rough land, used
TO clear up brush farms, and when well
handled they pay about 200 per cent
profit.
Now, | am going to quit Boosting
about Oregon and give YOU a few sam
pies of actual products that I am per-
sonally familiar with. A fve.acre field
of Strawberries, one and one-half
miles east Of Salem, this year, 1904,
produced 500 crates that sold at 1925
a crate, netting the grower 50 cents.
One hundred crates went unpicked be-
cause he could not hire pickers.
A dairy farm of lG5 acres, of less
than 80 acres cleared, milking 80 cows,
has brought the owner $4,000 in cash
for a number of years. His COWS paid
over 5000 a month for cream. He sold
1873 hogs in 1902.
] must tell you a L~oganberry story.
Seven acres for the first years crop
turned off 1923 crates that sold for
s los f. o. b. Another man, from one
and one-third acres, sold 90 crates, and
the past summer had been very dry,
cutting down the yield about one-third.
| could give you facts about alfalfa
and common red clover, showing profits
of over $50 an acre, but | would not
start all your people out this way in a
bunch. | must tell you a grape story.
We grow all the standard varieties,
like Concord and Niagara, and in adj
dition the finest French wine grapes,
which produce from 800 to 500 gallons
of wine per acre, that sells from 40 to
50 cents pergallon, but | will not tax
your patience with my further i%llustra-
ton of the wonderful fertility of our
soil or the products of our climate.
But we have a substantial country,
and we do not live on climate and
tourists. Our climate is about the
same as that of west England. The
evergreen and indigenous forests min
gle on our hills, and in our valleys the
laurel. mistletoe and rhodendrons, as
they do in Virginia. The English and
black walnut thrive equally. We have
fine public schools, and good hunting
and fishing. We have good roads and
good roadsters. We have railroads
and steamboat lines and rapidly ex-
tending systems of trolley cars. The
steamboats, are run summer and winter
on our rivers, and our sawmills load
vessels that go to South Africa and
South America. We are on the verge
of the orient, and our country will UNI
dergo a remarkable expansion. l could
tell of other industries, but | have
enumerated enough to disclose to any
reasonable man that our country has
a remarkable variety and untold posi-
bilities for future development. The
young man who is not permanently lo-
Gated i'm business, the man who is rent
ing a farm, the man with a few hun
dred or many thousands of ready
money who cannot come into a new
country like this and catch on to some
thing that will make him contented
and prosperous, wouldn't accomplish
much anywhere. I have never tried
to coax any of my friends out of their
comfortable surroundings, and am not