708 



OREGON. 



accurately kept, amounted to $1,001,000. In 



1869 and 1870 these gold shipments fell off, 

 and in their place there were shipped increased 

 quantities of produce and merchandise, until 

 for the year ending August 1, 1875, the prod- 

 uce exports to San Francisco amounted in value 

 to $4,105,025; 1877, to $5,329,192; and 1878, 

 to $6,134,491. In 1873 and 1874 the passen- 

 ger traffic by the ocean- steamers between San 

 Francisco and Portland had fallen off consid- 

 erably, and at the end of each of these years 

 Oregon had not gained more than 800 to 1,000 

 per year of arrivals over departures. From 

 August 1, 1875, to August 1, 1876, a manifest 

 increase had taken place in the passenger travel. 

 During that year the State Board of Immigra- 

 tion reported to the Legislature a gain of 

 11,213 persons in population for the twenty 

 months preceding August 1, 1876, of which 

 it was ascertained that 9,563 had come by the 

 ocean-steamers via San Francisco. From Au- 

 gust 1, 1876, to August 1, 1877, the total num- 

 ber of persons who arrived by ocean-steamers 

 at Portland, excluding soldiers, Chinamen, and 

 children under three years, numbered 12,843 ; 

 and during the year 1878 the estimated gain in 

 population to the State of Oregon was upward 

 of 20,000, the most of whom arrived per Ore- 

 gon steamers via San Francisco. 



The commerce of the State has shown equal 

 improvement. Before 1868 the shipments of 

 gold dust, bars, and treasure formed in value 

 three fourths of all the exports of Oregon ; but 

 these gold shipments gradually declined until 

 1872, when the amount was quite small, In 

 1868 the total exports of merchandise from the 

 Columbia River amounted to $1,780,408 ; in 



1870 there was very little increase, but in 1873 

 the gross exports of merchandise amounted to 

 $4,124,606, excluding treasure. The dutiable 

 imports from foreign countries rose from $90,- 

 500 in 1860 to $809,540 in 1872, while the for- 

 eign exports during the like period kept in the 

 same proportion until 1872, when the foreign 

 exports only amounted to $778,376, so that the 

 balance of foreign trade was in that year against 

 Oregon. She rapidly, however, recovered this 

 loss, for the direct imports from foreign coun- 

 tries fell away from $808,540 in 1872 to $475,- 

 508 in 1877, while the foreign exports in the 

 same period (five years) rose from $779,376 in 

 1872 to $1,498,722 in 1874, and to $3,990,191 

 in 1877 ; showing a vast gain annually of ex- 

 ports over imports from 1871 to 1877. For 

 the year ending August 1, 1875, the gross ex- 

 ports of produce and merchandise from Oregon 

 amounted to $10,176,251, or deducting ship- 

 ments of treasure per Wells, Fargo & Co., of 

 $2,278,250 (which properly are not exports), 

 the net total exports for the year ending Au- 

 gust 1, 1875, amounted to $9,175,087; 1877, to 

 $11,571,355; and 1878, to $14,644,973. The 

 details of these exports during the years just 

 mentioned are made up from the annual reports 

 of the Board of Trade, and are therefore au- 

 thentic. As regards the imports since 1872, 



only one third of the foreign imports come 

 direct to Portland the other two thirds com- 

 ing via San Francisco, where the duties are 

 paid. It is therefore impossible to give a cor- 

 rect detail of the import trade and contrast the 

 same with the exports. The export trade with 

 China and Australia has fallen off, and the car- 

 goes of lumber formerly shipped to those coun- 

 tries are now dispatched from Puget Sound. 

 One vast gain to the commerce of Oregon has 

 been the dissemination of information during 

 the last five years as to the safety of the Co- 

 lumbia bar. 



The advance in the value of lands has been 

 no less remarkable. In 1868 prairie and fair 

 improved farming lands in Linn, Lane, and 

 Yamhill Counties, and generally over the Wil- 

 lamette Valley, could easily be obtained at from 

 $15 te $20 per acre, while distant brush-land, 

 or what is now called oak-grub land, was sell- 

 ing at $3 to $4 per acre. When the Oregon 

 and California and Oregon Central Railroads 

 were built, farm-lands were sold at what were 

 then considered speculative prices, $25 to $30 

 per acre; and afterward, in 1872 and 1873, a 

 reaction took place, and prices of fair farming 

 lands fell to $20 per acre. This did not long 

 continue, however; and in 1875, 1876, 1877, 

 and 1878, prices kept gradually advancing, and 

 instead of large tracts, as was common in 1872 

 and 1873, being in the hands of a few indi- 

 viduals, unable, as they were then, to cultivate 

 the same, now a majority of the best farming 

 lands in the Willamette Valley are held in tracts 

 of 160 to 320 acres, and at firm prices of $30 to 

 $40, and occasionally, as around Albany and Sa- 

 lem, at $50 to $60 per acre. High oak-lands, 

 which in 1870 commanded $5 per acre, can not 

 BO easily now be obtained in advantageous 

 localities at less than $12 to $15 per acre; 

 while hill cleared lands, which were then re- 

 garded as fit for pasture merely, and were sell- 

 ing at $10 per acre, now command $20 to $25 

 per acre, dependent on the location and county. 

 An instance of how little was formerly known 

 as to the value and productiveness of these hill 

 lands ia seen in the case of the Waldo Hills 

 around Salem, which are of a red color, highly 

 productive, easily workable, and rich in soil. 

 There, although contiguous to Salem, to good 

 roads, to railroads and steamboats, it was diffi- 

 cult to obtain more than $7 to $8 per acre for 

 these lands when cleared, whereas to-day they 

 sell readily (the cleared portions) at $30 per 

 acre, exclusive of improvements. The best 

 samples of wheat exhibited at the Centennial 

 and Paris Expositions of 1876 and 1878 were 

 raised from these hill lands. In farm-buildings 

 there has been great improvement, and also in 

 fences. The immense tracts of brush-land in 

 Yamhill, Marion, Polk, and Clackamas Coun- 

 ties have been converted since 1874 into wheat- 

 lands. So extensively has this improvement 

 taken place that the aspect and appearance of 

 several districts have been so changed as to be 

 scarcely recognized. In the Waldo Hills clear- 



