THE IRRIGATION AGE. 275 



grain and grass as well as vegetables and fruits. Some progress has 

 been made in the lower valleys without irrigation, but the rainfall being 

 only two or three inches during the growing season or summer months, 

 is not enough to insure any k.nd of crop, even though the spring may 

 be unusually wet. In the northern counties the Chinook winds laden 

 mith moisture, assist in overcoming aridity, but the safest road to inde- 

 pendence on the farm is through artificial canals from the Columbia, 

 Snake and Umatilla rivers. 



The altitude of Eastern Oregon ranges from 1,500 feet to three or 

 four times that height above sea level, and the rainfall is in proportion 

 to elevation. On account of the ranges being utilized for sheep and cat- 

 tle and the rainbelt of Southern and Western Oregon in such close prox- 

 imity the irrigation projects have pot been so numerous or extensive as 

 in Idaho or Utah, but the advantages offered are so many that homeseek- 

 ers will find a most inviting field awaiting the application of water to 

 make it a perfect paradise. The mountain ranges rise high above the 

 table lands Mt. Hood, the most noted peak, attaining an elevation of 

 11,000 feet. The winters are very short, snow seldom falling until 

 Christmas, on the mesas and in the valleys where irrigation is possible. 

 Spring begins usually in February and general farm work can be con- 

 ducted every month in the year without any inconvenience. The warm 

 Japan current winds are felt even in the highest valleys, and their effect 

 is to cut short the winter period to an average of about six weeks, when 

 the cold is not severe. 



The irrigated area and that where irrigation may b^ practiced by 

 small and large canals, windmills, current wheels and other pumping 

 processes includes the following counties: Baker. Crook, Gilliman, 

 Grant, Harney. Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and 

 Wallowa. Various reports from the different sections give the first cost 

 of canal construction at about $5 an acre and the annual maintenance 

 expense at from 15 cents to $3 an acre. The cost of clearing and 

 plowing land and getting ready for planting ranges in the neighborhood 

 of $10 an acre, varying with the location and growth of native brush. 

 Wheat is the leading product, but all other cereals and grasses grow 

 luxuriantly. The average yield of the several crops is about 50 bushels 

 of wheat, 60 bushels of corn, 70 bushels oats, 6 tons of alfalfa or 8 tons 

 of timothy per acres. These figures are approximately the general 

 yield, with many farmers doing better and others never reaching the 

 amounts named. 



Oregon was admitted into the Union of states Feb. 14, 1859, and in 1890 

 had a population of 349,390 of which 1,602 represented the colored races. 

 On June 30, 1895, according to a report from the general land office, the 

 actual number of acres claimed under original homestead entries in the 

 state was 219,616, while the total area disposed of for cash under home- 

 stead acts, timber culture acts, located by agricultural college scrip, 

 military land warrants and selected by railroads, amounted to 337,990 



