The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1935-04-18

leys and the mountains, the trees
and the climate, and I could get
used to the way they farm there.
But there Is a big difference in
farming In Western Oregon and
farming in Central Minnesota.
Here we do everything more or less
on a large scale, our fields are
large and practically level, we do
our farming with four or six horse
machinery or tractors and nearly
all our work Is done with machin-
cry. In Western Oregon most Of the
farms are small branches they call
them, whether they are one acre
or 100 acres) many of them from
8 to 20 acres and as the land Is
worth a Lot Of money the crop of
necessity must be something that
will bring a large return per acre.
Land is worth anywhere from $40
per acre on the mountains where
1t can only be used fro grazing, to
$500 per acre for a good prune or
chard on creek or river bottom.
They raise prunes, peaches, ap-
ricots, apples, walnuts, strawber-
ries, loganberries and hops,-acres
and acres Of them. We saw many
fields Of Strawberries Of from to
10 acres. How would a Minnesota
farmer like to pick them; who
wouldn't buy a piece Of machinery
that didn't have seat on? All
kinds of fruit require considerable
hand work, especially pruning.
picking and packing. Sheep are a
good side line. They clean UP the
hop fields in the fall and winter,
and brouse around in the hills in
the brush, in other words they pick
up the money that grows on bushes
and in between. Hops, a pretty
good money crop. appears to me
to be lot of work. It is planted in
hills like corn but little wider
apart. Then they set posts all over
the field about 10 feet high and
stretch smooth wire over the hop
row with a string hanging down
from the wire to the hop plant.
When the hop begins to grow 1t
climbs the string to the wire and
then runs along the wire. In the
fall, of course, the hops have to be
picked by hand and dried. Many
farmers living farther from the
centers and closer to the hills and
mountains don't raise SO much
fruit, they have small orchards,
gardens and keep cows, hogs and
sheep. They raise alfalfa, sow oats
and cut it for hay or grain. They
raise corn and have silos, although
corn doesn't do as well as we
would expect, probably owing to the
always cool nights. SO you see far
mers are not altogether tied down
to raising fruit and hops. Anything
will grow better in Oregon than
it will any where else, at least that
is what they told me.
Everyone is not rich in Oregon
even though it does have won
derful climate, they have their E.
r. A. and direct relief the same as
we have here and I saw many men
and some women walking the road
with a pack on their back. They
are not all healthy either. They
have different kinds of hospitals
with many people in them, they
have schools for the deaf, dumb
and the blind. They have peni-
Tertiary with a lot Of fellows in it
who tried to get money without
work. They also have an insane
asylum and State House. The
asylum is full all the time, the
State House only for a couple of
months every second year. So you
see the West has it's problems the
same as the East. Now a little
about Douglas County where we
spent 4 weeks of the time we were
gone and where the Parker Bros.
ranch is. The Parker Bros. ranch
is operated by r. II. Parker,
nephew Of MIR. Frank Parker in
Sank Centre. For a number of
years he was the N. P. agent at
Westport, MINI. Mrs. Parker and
Mrs. Gray are sisters. Ray is a big
shot around Sutherlin, nice little
city about 21a miles square, pop
ulation 500. Besides operating one
of the largest ranches in Douglas
county, he is vice president of the
Townsend club and secretary of
the Douglas county fair assocfa-
ton. Nevertheless the Parkers had
time to take us on our second trip
to the ocean at Bandon, where we
rented a cottage and stayed over
night. 1t certainly was swell.
The Parker Bros. ranch of 200
acres Is 8 miles west of Sutherlin
and not far from the Umpqua Val
ley, sometimes called the garden
valley on account of its fertile soil.
The ranch is pretty place, gently
rolling and almost surrounded by
fir topped hills. They have nice
house, good dairy barn, two silos