A Ride Through Oregon [pp. 303-310]

A RIDE THROUGH OREGON.
but helpless dependence on the "old floods, no droughts, no grasshoppers,
man." This is a representative interior no weevil; nothing that can make the
town. After awhile, the keen, cultivat- farmer feel less secure than if insured.
ed Yankee will come along, and push Here are fields, I am told, that for twenthese young men off the track, out of ty successive years have brought forth
their homes, back into the mountains; their unfailing crops of wheat, without
and they will murmur some, and wonder fallow or manure. However, we must
how it is, but should not complain. know that such is not the rule, and, at
- Here, too, is an army of men at war best, is only a shiftless Webfoot way of
with the railroad. Men, whose land has getting on that no farmer should boast of.
been trebled in value by the location of Still, if there is a soil under the sun that
this line, are fighting every foot of its can endure such culture, this is surely
advance. While some men, awake to the soil. Go down to the river, and see
the interests of the country, have gener- where it has cut through its banks of fifously given a right of way to the enter- teen feet of loam and black alluvial botprise, the sleepy Webfoot, who is afraid torn, and you will agree with me. Yet,
his cow will be run over and his grass with these broad and matchless fields, all
burnt up by the railroad, is suing for kinds of produce are high and scarce. All
damages, and displaying an energy in his along the stage - line through the southopposition that he has never shown in ern part of the State, the drivers stated
any thing else. If Holladay had under- they could not get oats at even $i a
taken to pass through the lines of the bushel and had to feed wheat to a great
Apache Indians, he could not have en- excte!t. This is remarkable. Labor is
countered more trouble than this class needed here. I have taken pains to look
of people have given him in Oregon. into this, and write advisedly. Nearly
A little way from here is the junction twenty years' residence in the State, and
of the East Side and West Side lines, then recent observations abroad, where
both owned by Holladay. The "West I could make comparisons, enable me
Side," with its southern terminus now in to speak truly, as well as plainly; and I
the city of Portland, but which will be think it safe to say that no country precarried to Astoria, runs all the way up sents nearly so many attractions to setthe west side of the Wallamet; while tlers, either with or without means, as this.
the "East Side" keeps up the other side, There are some who complain of the cliand makes its crossing just below the mate of this valley-and it is certainly not
forks of the river, to the junction; thus attractive during the winter months-yet
giving this valley railroad advantages it is almost exactly like that of England,
equal to any in the Union. In fact, it is with the advantage of temperature on the
safe to say, that, at the end of the pres- side of Oregon. That of England is a
ent year, Oregon will have more railroad, little more cold and crisp, while this is
according to its population, than any the more damp and humid of the two,
State you can name. but not excessively so.
Be sure and stop at Albany, a little Salem, the Capital (how one tires of
wide-spread town on the east bank of these old Eastern names all through this
the Wallamet; for this is the heart of country. Why not, like California, have
the valley. Ten and twenty miles, in given pretty local names to their towns?
many directions, you see only level Named them after the old Indian chiefs,
fields, farm-houses, and orchards. It for instance, who wore feathers in their
looks much like Illinois. Wheat is the hair and quills in their noses, and were
great production. It never fails. No well up in the art of tomahawking mis
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