The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1919-12-18
BY E. NJ. Shut.

Editor Gazette-Times:
Responding to your request, I am
herewith submitting a few off-hand
observations of my own, concerning
Morrow County real estate values,
and the future prospects of enhanc-
ing the same.
In the first place l will say that
the railroad gateway into this rich
and diversified belt of wheat, alfalfa.
pasture and timber land Consisting
of some 81 townships, or 1000 square
miles, has been one of the chief
means of retarding our development.
There is no remedy apparent for this,
but the fact remains. The home
seeker from the East, or from the
Willamette Valley, or from Canada
is not very likely to go wild over the
scenery and the agricultural posi-
bilities at Heppner Junction.
Judging Morrow County by its
river frontage, it is the natural thing
for the stranger to pass on in dis
gust, never stopping long enough to
learn of the broad, rich fields of the
former b%unchgrass prairies, the fer
tile and beautiful valleys, the we'll
watered stock ranches and the vast
timber belt lying Immediately South
of this rough exterior. Morrow
County as yet has received but little
exploiting, and its intrinsic merits
are not known much beyond its own
confines.
To illustrate: The writer person
ally knows of an outsider with plen-
ty of money who recently came into
Morrow County looking for a safe
investment in wheat land. He was
shown several tracts of u best land
and was offered one fine tract at $50
per acre. This land had not been
farmed intensively and the buildings
were not modern by several degrees.
The adjoining farms we're very
much in the same fix, and not know
ing what he was actually passing up
because of exterior appearances, this
gentleman went over to Sherman
county and paid s125 per acre for a
large farm Of which the soil was pre-
cisely the same quality and the an
nual rainfall just the same as the
Morrow County farm which he pass
ed up at $50 per acre.
There you are. This man got a
farm that will not produce a bushel
to the acre more than will this tract
of Morrow County soil when farmed
in like manner, but the buildings
were good, the farm itself had been
kept up and the neighborhood look
ed inviting. Here is a hint for the
man who wants to make his farm
pay the maximum revenue while he
is operating it and who will get the
top price for his farm when he gets
ready to sell it and retire.
Morrow County wheat farms are
now selling at from SIS to $50 per
acre; pasture land and timber land
at from SO to $3.50 per acre. Our
alfalfa land is usually embodied in a
larger tract of wheat or pasture land
so it is a hard matter to determine
the value of the alfalfa land, exclu-
siyely. Suffice it TO say, however,
that the same rule applies as in the
case Of Morrow County wheat and
pasture land-it is being sold at from
one-third to one-half what exactly
the same class Of land is being sold
at in Umatilla, Sherman and Wasco
counties, and the Walla Walla and
Palouse countries.
This condition Of course cannot
long exist. In spite Of our isolation
~homeseekers and safe investors have
learned and are gradually learning
of our diamond In the rough, and are
headed this way for cheap land. The
writer is willing to be quoted as pre-
dieting that within the next five or
six ear present land values will be
doubled in Morrow County.
While the majority of the Morrow
County wheat farms have not been
made to produce what they are cap
able OF producing, yet we pioneer
citizens In travelling over the county
are gratiied to see the large and
growing number of fine farms-clean
summer-fallowed fields. big white
houses and spacious red barns good