116 



OREGON FARMER 



are best provided with railways have also abundant facilities for 

 transportation by water. The Columbia is navigable throughout 

 the year as far as The Dalles, and the Willamette to Salem. Except 

 for the period of low water, both rivers have regular service for much 

 longer distances. For about nine months of the year the Columbia 

 is navigable to Priest Rapids, Washington, and to Lewiston, Idaho; 

 while the regular service of the Willamette reaches Corvallis, except 

 during low water. 



However, the best settled sections of the state have regular trans- 

 portation facilities for agricultural products by either rail or water; 

 and as fast as other areas are sufficiently developed, present lines 

 are being extended and new ones built. 



Postal Service and Telephone. 



SOCIAL STATISTICS-A. 



The eagerness with which Oregon farmers improve their means 

 of communication is well illustrated by the above statistics on the use 

 of the rural telephone and Rural Free Delivery. It is interesting to 

 note the large number of farms visited in all parts of the state which 

 make use of the rural telephone. Even in the most sparsely settled 

 divisions of the state, a large percentage of the farmers are in actual 

 speaking contact with the outside world. Roads may be bad, and 

 distances too great to admit of postal rural free delivery of mail ; but 

 along the lines of privately or mutually owned telephones, the news 

 of the outside world penetrates the remotest neighborhoods. The 

 farmer and his family are often alive to the topics of the day long 

 before the information could reach him by the slower method of the 

 local post office. 



In but few sections of Oregon, need the settler long face the deaden- 

 ing isolation which formerly confronted the pioneer. Into all parts 

 of the state the rural telephone is carrying its message of cheer and 

 social unity. Following it is the rural free delivery with its parcel 

 post service which further cements the farmer to the world of thought 

 and industry of which he forms a part. A*study of the above table 

 in connection with the Division Map of the state, page 7, tells the 

 story more eloquently than it could be expressed in words. 



