Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1915-05-11
THE HEART OF OREGON
WONDERFUL RESOURCES OF FA-
NOUS WILLAMETTE VALLEY.
Writer in Sunset Magazine Discusses
Its Possibilities and Furnishes
Interesting Statistics.

Walter V. WoenlKe, IN the ApFu
Sunset magazine, gives some statistics
that will astonish even those who
have lived for years in this most IA
vored section of this great country.
Mr., Woehlke says the Willamette val
ley is the heart of Oregon. There
are seven million tillable acres in the
Willamette valley; in the entire state
of Oregon barely four million acres
were under cultivation two years ago,
and during the same year but one
acre out of seven in the Willamette
valley was titled. Out of the seven
million acres in the broad valley al
most six million still await the touch
of the plow-and on these six million
acres the forest is still master.
THE Willamette valley is the heart
of oregon. 1t contains the states
largest area of level land suitable for
crop production without irrigation; it
contains the bulk of the states pop
ulation; it is the oldest district in
the far west settled by Americans;
it contains the densest rural popula-
ton in Oregon, the bulk of the states
orchards and dairies; it is traversed by
a network of steam and interurban
electric lines, yet only one acre out
of seven is producing at present With
one million acres in crop, it supports
a population of half a million. Is it
unreasonable to suppose that this val
lev alone, when six million acres are
cleared and cultivated, will support
population of two millions, will sus-
tain in comfort as many people as
there are now in the states of oregon
and Washington combined
"The time will come when the en-
tire valley is covered with forty-acre
farms from one end to the other, but
it will not be tomorrow or the day
after. There is room in Western Ore
gon for two million more people, but
this room at present is occupied large
ly by trees and stumps. To prepare
an acre of stump land for the plow
requires an expenditure of time and
material worth at least fifty dollars,
usually more. In other words, min
imum capital expenditure of three
hundred million dollars is necessary
before the full productive power of
the Willamette valley is realized.
'Will it pay?
ut has paid in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Indiana, where the growing season is
far shorter, the acre-yield smaller, the
variety of products narrower than in
Oregon 1t is paying in oregon right
now.
",The dairy farmers of Tillamook do
not care to sell even at $500 an acre.
Their prosperity is the best answer
to the question whether it pays to
spend from $50 to $500 an acre clear
ing the Oregon stump lands OF course
the high Tillamook land prices refer
solely to the black humus soil of the
river bottoms, but the value and pro-
ductive power of this bottom land
supply a clew to the ultimate fate of
the immense area of cut-over hill and
valley land still sunproductive in west
ern oregon.
"Oregon has a total land surface of
sixty-one million acres, an area larger
than the combined territory of Illi-
nois and Indiana. Under cultivation
Oregon has only four million acres,
and it is estimated that nineteen mil
lion additional acres will eventually
be brought under the plow. But this
process will take time. Open land with
an ample supply of moisture was all
taken up years ago. The nineteen mil
lion acres still lying fallow must be
prepared before production can be-
gin. In Western Oregon the stump
puller and blasting-powder must do
their work before the seed can be
sown. There Is work in abundance
ahead of Oregon, work for many
generations to come, but this abun-
dance of work also insures the steady
and continuous expansion of the old
state.
"Oregon and Iowa began civilized
life almost at the same moment Iowa
completed its growth in two genera
tons; agricultural expansion ceased
fifteen years ago, the rural population
began to decrease when the last wild
acre was broken and tile-drained. To-
day the grandchildren of the Iowan
pioneers are coming to oregon to be-
come pioneers, to wrestle with untam-
ed nature breast to breast as did their
fathers. And the goal of the struggle
"a home in Oregon-is worth the eff
fort.