C34 



OREGON. 



The Oregon Pacific was sold Dec. 22 for $100,- 

 000 to Bonner & Hammond. Objections were 

 made on the ground that the price was inade- 

 quate, but they were not held valid, and the sale 

 was confirmed by the court. The road wen I 

 into the hands of a receiver Oct. 26, 1890. It 

 has been offered for sale 8 times. At no sale 

 was there any competition in the bidding, and 

 only 3 bids were made. The first was for $1,000,- 

 000, but the purchaser failed to complete the 

 purchase and forfeited $25,000. The next sale 

 was for $200,000, but it was set aside. It is es- 

 timated that of the $100,000 paid about $15,000 

 will be left after the settling for court expenses, 

 delinquent taxes, etc., to discharge $1,250,000 of 

 obligations contracted while the road was in the 

 charge of the court. 



A contract has been signed for the building of 

 a road from Astoria to Goble, where it will con- 

 nect with the Northern Pacific, to be finished be- 

 fore Nov. 1, 1895. The people of Astoria gave a 

 land subsidy valued at over $2,000,000. 



Companies have been incorporated, one for 

 building a road from Portland to North Yakinm, 

 in central Washington, and one to build a rail- 

 road and telegraph line from the western termi- 

 nus of the Coos Bay, Roseburg, and Eastern 

 Railroad in a northerly direction to North Bend 

 and Coos Bay. 



Decision. In a suit of Multnomah County 

 against the Northwest Loan and Trust Company 

 to recover $168,000 tax money deposited by the 

 sheriff, in which the county sought to establish a 

 preference to the extent of the amount due and 

 to place a lien to that amount on the money and 

 securities held by the receiver of the company, 

 the decision was based on one by the Supreme 

 Court, " that a creditor could only have a pre- 

 ferred lien over other creditors on the assets of 

 the bank where he distinctly traced and followed 

 the property specifically with the property in the 

 hands and in the possession of the receiver, or in 

 some substituted form, where the trust funds 

 were mixed with the funds of the bank " ; and 

 since the tax money could not be so traced, the 

 decision was against the county, which will be 

 obliged to take such percentages from time to 

 time as are received by other creditors. 



Industries and Products. The gold output 

 of the State in 1893 is given as 79.543 fine ounces, 

 an increase of 30 over that of 1892. By discov- 

 eries in 1894, and the turning of labor to mining 

 by the depression in other industries, it is be- 

 lieved that the production of gold is to be great- 

 ly increased. New machinery has been brought 

 in, and mines where operations had been sus- 

 pended have been started again. 



Among the new industries reported is the 

 manufacture of turpentine, rosin, and pitch 

 from the Douglas fir. The quality of the prod- 

 ucts is good, and if the sap can be gathered with 

 a sufficiently small outlay the manufacture will 

 be profitable. Peppermint oil from the wild 

 plant that grows along the streams and in moist 

 places is said to be as rich in menthol as the 

 .Michigan product. Prunes are raised largely in 

 western Oregon, and are found more profitable, 

 than wheat. The hops this year turned out 

 badly owing to mold and insects. The product 

 was estimated at 25,000 bales, while in 1893 it 

 was 38,000. Statistics of the wool crop show 



that Oregon, on Jan. 1, had 2.529,75*9 sheep, and 

 on April 1 2,481,694 ; 19,853,552 pounds of 

 washed and unwashed wool, the average weight 

 being 8 pounds to the fleece, while the per cent, 

 of shrinkage was 65, and the pounds of scoured 

 wool 6,948,743. 



A corporation has been formed in Portland, 

 with a capital stock of $1,000,000, for the pur- 

 pose of building beet-sugar factories. 



From figures taken from an article in the 

 "American Economist'' in May, it is found that 

 there was a shrinkage of 60 percent, in two years 

 in the employment of labor in the State. 



The report of the Fish and Game Protector for 

 two years shows that the total amount of all spe- 

 cies of salmon packed in the State in 1893 was 

 319,723 cases ; in 1894 it was 401,556 cases. The 

 value of the pack in 1893 was $1,540,560. The 

 number of factories in operation was 23; the 

 value of land, buildings, and machinery, $648,- 

 637; the cash capital employed, $820,503; the 

 number of men at work in factories, fishing, 

 and in other branches of the business was 4.060. 

 The wages for the season's work of four months 

 averaged $260 in the factories, and less in other 

 parts of the work. 



Immigration. The report of the State Im- 

 migration Board in April says the rooms were 

 visited in March by 3,412 persons, 197 letters of 

 inquiry were received, and 20 reduced railway- 

 fare certificates were issued. 



The amount of Government-land transfers in 

 the State is indicated by the statistics for 1893 

 of the United States Land Office at Oregon City, 

 among which are: Homestead entries, 82,447 

 acres; final proofs, 32,421 acres; timber entries, 

 25.600 acres ; pre-emption proofs, 24,500 acres ; 

 pre-emption filings, 9,440 acres ; homestead com- 

 mutations, 9,920 acres. There were 14 coal and 

 mineral-land declarations. 



About 48,000 acres of land in the Siletz reser- 

 vation have been allotted to the Indians in sev- 

 eralty. The remainder of the 232,000 acres is to 

 be opened for settlement under the homestead 

 laws. The agricultural lands are mostly along 

 the Siletz and Salmon rivers and their affluents. 

 The Indians are not allowed to sell their lands 

 for a number of years, but may lease them. 



The approximate quantity of unsold United 

 States lands in the several land districts in the 

 State is : Surveyed land, 16,584,426 acres ; unsur- 

 veyed, 11.364.960 acres. 



Floods. The melting snows of the Colum- 

 bia watershed caused an unprecedented rise in 

 the river in June. Toward the close of May 

 the temperature rose suddenly and remained 

 high for several days over the whole area drained 

 by the Columbia and its affluents. The Willa- 

 mette could not gain an outlet, and its waters 

 backed and flooded the low lands and the river 

 fronts of Portland. The water extended 4, and 

 at one point 5, blocks from the river on the 

 east side, and twice that distance on the west 

 side. The ferry wharves were submerged, and 

 one of the bridges was so far under water that 

 the draw could not be worked. Communication 

 was by boats, of which the number in use was 

 estimated at nearly 1,500, and when a fire broke 

 out it was reached by engines on barges. The 

 maximum height, 33 feet above low-water mark, 

 was reached June 7. In the flood of 1876 the 



