The Yamhill Country [pp. 498-503]

THE YAMHILL COUNTRY.
to render them profitable for manufacturing purposes.
The Oregon madrofo attains a size sufficient to be used in fine finishing. Its
handsome, close, dense grain takes a rich
polish, and the wood is very durable. The
myrtle, white and black, covers entire
townships. This wood is so heavy that
it sinks in water, but it is as tough as
hickory. Many of the trees are two and
three feet through, and logs fifty feet long
are easily obtainable. The wood takes
a beautiful polish, rich as satin, and the
curly myrtle has a shade for every light.
It makes durable wagon hubs and is an
excellent material for any purpose in
which its weight would not be a disqualification, but it is best fitted for the manufacture of furniture of the more elegant
character. Nut trees do well, and will
become an important product of the valley. The chestnut, black walnut, English walnut, butternut, almond, filbert,
pecan, and hickory nut, have responded
to culture and stand the climate well.
The hazel nut is a native and grows luxuriantly.
The sugar beet will grow successfully
in the Willamette valley. Experiments
in the culture of flax have demonstrated
that the region about Puget sound in
western Washington is one of the exceptional localities where this fiber can be
grown. The summer climate of the Willamette valley and particularly of the
Yamhill country, in the seasons during
which the flax attains its growth, is re.markable for the coolness of its nights
and the humidity of the atmosphere.
Some of the flax grown in this country
was sent to mills in Ireland to be tested,
with the result that it was pronounced
eminently adapted for thread-making and
warp-yarn spinning purposes, being exceedingly strong and working well on the
machines.
The wild pea grows rank over large
sections of the State, and is an excellent
forage plant. The soil will support as
heavy crops of peas as of wheat or oats,
and they will sell for twice as much. It
is claimed that for consumption on the
farm, peas make good food for poultry,
and that for fattening hogs one hundred
pounds of peas are equal to two hundred
pounds of oats and I75 pounds of wheat.
The rains of the Webfoot State have
long been an amiable jest with outsiders
imperfectly familiar with the climatic conditions of the Northwest. The fact is
that at no time of the year occurs anything like a continuous downpour or even
steady showers. The dry season, as
throughout the entire Pacific coast, includes the summer months'and part of
autumn, but there are many bright days
during the winter months popularly supposed to include "the wet season." Probably one third of the winter days come
and go without any rain whatever, and
it is seldom that the showers are twentyfour hours in duration. Neither does the
rain come in storms. It seems to drop
from warm clouds condensed bythe slightest pressure, and it falls like dew, utterly
devoid of the destructive force common
elsewhere. East of the Cascades the dry
plains warm the air, and as it rises it
sucks down the cold wind from the snowcovered sides of Mount Hood and the high
range north of it; but no such effect is
produced on the temperature of the Willamette basin by either the ocean on the
west or the mountain ranges east and
south. The only workmen who seem to
pay any attention to the rain are the
house-painters and the irrigators. Extreme heat or bitter cold are unknown.
The Japan current does for this coast
what the Gulf stream does for Western
Europe, tempering the air and sending
the isothermal lines far north of the point
usually marked on the maps for inland
sections.
No section is better provided with
transportation facilities than the Willamette basin. The Willamette river is navigable through the valley for a distance of
I25 miles, and is open to the Columbia
and the ocean during the entire year.
The United States government has constructed a fine system of locks opposite
the falls of the Willamette, and these are
capable of handling steamers of the deepest draft. Four lines of railroad extend
the length of the valley, two on each side
of the river.
The available lands were taken up very
early, under liberal donation and other
grants. In I85O Congress passed an Act
giving to every man who had previously
settled in the Territory 320 acres of land,
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