OUR PACIFIC NORTHWEST 



651 



were 13,411,581 bushels of wheat and 

 858,845 barrels of flour. Its manufac- 

 tures are varied and extensive, but lum- 

 ber leads, one great mill cutting one-half 

 billion feet a year, worth over $9,000,000. 

 Flour is a close second. 



-Several trunk railroads come into Port- 

 land, exchanging a great tonnage of 

 freight of many kinds, which is rapidly 

 increasing in amount. One great advan- 

 tage that Portland has in freight is the 

 down-grade haul down Columbia River. 

 When Celilo locks are completed the 

 river will be open for navigation all the 

 way to the great wheat country to the 

 east. If the government deepens the 

 channel of the Columbia River to 30 feet, 

 the larger ocean vessels can be accommo- 

 dated and Portland's foreign commerce 

 will be considerably increased in amount. 

 The present limit of draft is 2$y 2 feet. 

 Portland, and the Willamette Valley 

 extending south, has a particularly equa- 

 ble climate, with average temperature of 

 about 54 . In winter the daily variation 

 in temperature is often only 5 to io°. 

 The mean annual precipitation is 41 Y\ 

 inches, but much of it is in the rainy 

 season, which begins late in the year. 

 Green grass all the year round indicates 

 the mildness of the winter climate, and 

 there is no extreme heat in summer. 

 Portland well merits her title of the Rose 

 City, for roses abound throughout her 

 resident section from April to Christmas. 

 It has the low death rate of gy 2 per 1,000 

 a year. 



TACOMA 



Tacoma is third in size of the cities in 

 the Pacific Northwest, but it is full of 

 enterprise and its rapid development sus- 

 tains its more sanguine promoters in the 

 expectation that it will finally become the 

 dominating metropolis. It has some 

 notable advantage^. Primarily it lies 

 nearer than Seattle to the great agricul- 

 tural districts, so that the land haul to 

 tidewater is less, especially by the new 

 railroad line down the north branch of 

 Columbia River. 



The population is now about 105,000, 

 yet thirty years ago it was only about 



1,000. The death rate is remarkably low, 

 only 8 per 1,000. The topography is 

 favorable for growth, and the harbor 

 facilities are all that could be desired. It 

 has an ocean commerce of about $45,- 

 000,000 a year, about half of which is 

 export trade. Its wheat shipments in 

 190S amounted to 11,500,000 bushels of 

 wheat and 800,000 barrels of flour, with 

 an aggregate value of $13,500,000. It 

 has extensive lumber business, having 

 the largest saw-mill in the world. Its 

 pay-roll in manufacturing plants in 1908 

 was $8,760,000, paid to 11,800 persons 

 for an output valued at $43,677,418. Its 

 building record for 1907 and 1908 was 

 slightly over $4,000,000 for each year. 



The climate of Tacoma is not materi- 

 ally different from that of Portland and 

 Seattle. The mean annual temperature 

 is 5 1. 4 and the mean annual rainfall 

 45.4 inches. Most of the precipitation is 

 in the rainy season, in the winter. Ta- 

 coma believes that her topography will 

 greatly favor her growth. The city is 

 built along the slope and over the top 

 of a fine, wide plateau 300 to 350 feet 

 high, extending far to the north, west, 

 and south. The adjoining lands to the 

 east are partly swamp and partly the flat 

 bottom valley of Puyallup River, which 

 offer very large areas to be reclaimed for 

 docks and railroad yards. It is expected 

 that long basins will be excavated in the 

 reclaimed lands, so that 70 miles of dock- 

 line may be developed, or more than the 

 water front of New York city. 



In the interior portions of Washington 

 and Oregon there are many flourishing 

 cities, notably Walla Walla, North Yak- 

 ima, Wenatchee, Ellenburg, and Pendle- 

 ton, with scores of smaller towns, which 

 cannot be described in a brief article. 



FAMED FOR THEIR APPLES 



Oregon and Washington are more 

 widely famed for their apples than for 

 any other product. They are produced 

 in large quantity, kept to a high standard 

 by careful selection, and shipped to all 

 parts of the world. London and other 

 European markets receive many of them, 

 and they bring fancy prices wherever 



