Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1921-06-08
WHAT OF WESTERN STATE
WESTERNER WRITES OF HIS NEW
HOME CONDITIONS
Former Vernon Boy Tells a Brother
Some Things-Orris KellarO of Ore
gon to His Kickapoo Brother
Logan


other things. In the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth.
And then he took the scraps and
made Oregon. There are more vari-
atoms IN Oregon weather, Oregon eli
mate, Oregon soil, Oregon topography,
| Oregon products, etc, than any other
state on earth.
! There are places in Oregon where
| the annual rain fall is 40 inches, and
/ there are places where it seldom ever
rains. There are places where the
snow lays the year around, and there
/ are places where it very, very seldom
! freezes. There are places where the
timber is so dense, that it is almost
impossible to get through it; and
| there are places where sage brush,
/ even, will not grow. There are places
where springs are plenty, flow from
/ the ground and there are places where
/ they drill LOO feet to find water.
| There are places where it is almost
| level for miles at time, and other
! places where il is so rough and brok-
| en- that a goat could not climb it,
Some of it under meath the ocean, and
some of it is more than two miles
| high. There is no place that has all
! the good qualities, and no place that
! has all the bad ones.
You want to know all about Oregon
/ The task is beyond me. You should
write to some real estate man. East
of the Cascade mountains there is a
great scope of country where they
grow nothing but wheat The same
| land has been producing wheat for
! so years, and will produce as much
per acre next year as it did the first
year. The reason? 1t never rains
enough to wash the fertility out of the
soil. Over there they talk about
6-horse rancl, or a 12-horse ranch, or
a 48-horse ranch Six horses make
team. But many Of them are dis
carding the horse and using tractors.
West of the Cascades is the Villa
mette valley. pronounce it just the
same as you say dam IT'D And my
way of thinking, it is the best place
on earth, in which to live. 1t is about
40 miles wide east and west, and 100
miles long, south from Portland.
They grow almost anything and ev-
erything there; but land is high in
price. From there on south it is very
rough and broken, though they have
some good valleys. The south coun-
try is devoted mostly to fruit grow
ing II 10 WdIititI tAlGtG BildH mere
and they have less rain. So / will
contine my description to this partie-
ular locality. | was once talking with
real estate man about this place,
and | asked him whether it was rough
or just rolling. He asked where | was
from? / told him / had lived on the
plains of Iowa, and had lived in the
Rocky mountains. He said if / was
from the mountains, this was rolling;
but if | was from Iowa it was rough,
and damned rough. | guess | can't
better that description, much.
The hills here are not so high as
the Kickapoo hills, but there are more
of them. That is, when you get to
the top of the hill there is no level
place, but you start right down the
other side. The valleys are Just wide
enough for a little creek to run
through them. There are but very few
places large enough or level enough
to play ball on. But still on the three
forties that Walt, Homer, and l have
there is not as much waste land as on
the three forties that Art has. The
soil is good, but it is not rich. Can
you understand that? 1t took me
long time to savy. But for a thou
sand years this land has produced
nothing but fir trees. There has been
no leaves falling to restore the soil.
And where the trees grow so prolific,
there is no underbrush, no weeds and
no grass. These trees have been
dropping turpentine into the soil;
drawing it up, and dropping it back
again.
Nothing but clover does well the
first crop. The ground must be Guilt
waited to liberate the turpentine. But
after one crop of clover has been
turned under, you can grow anything.
i saw ruttabagga last fall that
weighed 40 pounds. Cabbage does
well. Spuds do extra well. We can't
grow tomatoes nor waternelons. 1t
is a great apple country. Prunes
and pears do fine. An expert told us
short time ago that we had the
best berry country IN the northwest.
A neighbor sold $500 worth of
black berries from one bush this fall.
Many of them claim this for good
dairy country; but it is necessary to
have a silo to feed through August
and September, when the pastures
dry up, and nobody has one. This
country is where the Kickapoo was in
the eighties. The farmers grow a
garden, and go to the lumber camps
to make a living. 1t will be fine
thing for the country when the timber
is gone. There are a few newcomers
in here who are setting pace for the
old mossbacks. They say:"The Kellars
are going to take the country" don't
know what they'll say if the rest of
| you come.
Ask anybody what is the worst
thing about Oregon and there is but
one answer-the rain. So / reckon
you want to know about rain. Right
now we are expecting the winter rains
to begin. And it may be a month
yet before they do. If it begins soon
we will get two or three weeks of rain
and then some more good weather till
about Christmas time. But from then
on it will rain. 1t never does it twice
alike; but the chances are that it
will be q gentle rain all day long.
The next day it win rain like the de-
VII for an hour or two, and then let
up for an hour or two, and then pour
down for an hour or so and then an
other respite. The next day it may
rain all forenoon. and not in the after
noon, or viceversa, or it may rain only
an hour the next day. 1t may keep
this up for a week or more. Then
we will have two or three days with
out any rain, or it may not rain for
| a week or more. But it win always
be cloudy. Very seldom viii you see