OREGON 



44l)o 



OREGON 



production of fruit, especially apples, which 

 are sold in great quantities in London and New 

 York markets. The value of the apple crop 

 is usually about $3,000,000 a year. Oregon 

 pears, which are of an especially fine variety, 

 peaches, nectarines, prunes, cherries and grapes 

 are grown in abundance. The small fruits, of 

 which tho strawberry is most important, form 

 another large crop. All kinds of vegetables are 

 grown. 



Cereals, hay, potatoes and hops are the most 

 important agricultural products of the state. 

 Oregon is the source of about forty-seven per 

 rent of the total hop crop of the United States; 

 in 1915 the production was nearly 100,000 bales. 

 Winter wheat, oats, spring wheat and barley, 

 the chief cereals, have a total annual value of 

 about $25,000,000, two-thirds of which is the 

 income from wheat. In 1915, at the Panama- 

 Pacific Exposition, the grand prize for forage 

 crops was awarded to Oregon. The value of 

 the live stock of the state is about $75,000,000, 

 one-third of which is the value of horses, and 

 another third, the value of cattle. The farm- 

 ers of the Willamette Valley are prosperous and 

 progressive, but in the arid plateau region much 

 of the land is yet owned by great syndicates 

 and is rented to tenants. Oregon is one of the 

 ten states in which the government still has 

 large tracts of public lands to dispose of. 



Irrigation is doing much to conquer the sage- 

 brush of the arid regions and is decreasing the 

 number of extensive cattle ranches. Six per 

 cent of the total area of farm land, or about 

 686,000 acres, was under irrigation in 1915, most 

 of it in the south and east districts. Work has 

 been begun on projects for the watering of 

 several hundred thousand acres, most of which 

 is included in contracts with the Federal gov- 



icnt. Government projects include the 

 Umatilla and Oregon Klamath systems, the 

 investment in these in 1915 being over $5,- 

 000,000. 



Forests. Oregon is one of the leading states 

 in the extent and value of its forests; the state 

 possesses one-sixth of the standing timber of 



United States. The Douglas fir, known as 



Oregon pine, or red fir, is the most im- 

 portant timber of the state. This tree, growing 

 300 foot tail and having a diameter of about 



n feet, produces more comm. trial timber 

 per acre than any other tree of the American 

 continent. Next to yellow pine, it is the most 



ly used of the woods in the l"i. 

 States, and the largest part of the total an- 

 nual output of over 5,000,000,000 board feet is 



from Oregon. The Sitka spruce, twenty feet 

 in diameter, is the largest tree of the state and 

 is also important commercially. The western 

 yellow pine, white pine, sugar pine, hemlock, 

 cedar, juniper, laurel, willow, oak, maple and 

 ash are also abundant. Oregon, furnishing 33 

 per cent of the product of Douglas fir, ranks 

 ninth among the states in the total output of 

 timber. 



Only Idaho and Montana surpass Oregon in 

 the amount of lumber cut from national for- 

 ests, which cover 13,259,992 acres in this state. 

 In 1915 Congress passed acts prohibiting any 

 additions by the President to the national for- 

 ests of Oregon and six other Western states. 

 The Federal government cooperates with tho 

 state in protecting private and state-owned land 

 against forest fires, and in the national forests 

 trails have been made and telegraphs con- 

 structed to secure aid in fighting fires. The 

 state board of forestry organizes other meth- 

 ods of forest protection. 



Mining. Although its mineral resources are 

 varied, Oregon is not important as a mining 

 state. Baker County, in the Blue Mountains, 

 is the most active center of the mining indus- 

 try, and is the chief source of gold, silver and 

 quartz. Josephine and Lane counties, in the 

 west, also produce gold; placer mining, begun 

 in 1849, is still a thriving industry* Clay prod- 

 ucts, chiefly common brick, are important. 

 Coal is almost entirely confined to Coos 

 County, the output of the state in 1916 being 

 only 53,000 tons. Copper, platinum, occasional 

 gems, lead, sand, gravel, limestone, gypsum 

 and mineral waters are widely distributed. 

 The value of the annual mineral products of 

 the state is over $3,000,000. 



Fisheries.' Hanking sixteenth among tho 

 states in the value of its fisheries, Oregon owes 

 its importance as a fishing state to the great 

 supply of salmon from the Columbia H 

 Astoria is tho chief center of the catching 

 and canning of salmon, which is tin* most im- 

 portant fish of North America. In 1916 tl, 

 salmon pack of the Columbia River was 

 291,240 cases, valued at over $2,000,000, being 

 exceeded only by the Alaskan, Pugct Sown! 

 and Hriti>h Columbian packs. Immense hali- 

 but "banks" line the coasts, and white stur- 

 geon, oysters and "Oregon" trout are caugl 

 large quantities. Almost ail of the fishing is 

 done from small boats near the shore or along 

 tin- banks of streams. 



Manufactures. Tho large amount of avail- 

 able water power, the abundance of raw ma- 



