1912. 
THE; RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1103 
More About Oregon. 
I realize that the Far West is little 
known to the great home-making classes 
in American life, although the West 
generally offers greater opportunities 
than the East to the home-makers. It 
is the land of the farmer because climate 
is one of the great factors in agricul¬ 
ture. 
Oregon has an area of 90,000 square 
miles, or 61,459,200 acres, an area 
greater than the States of New York, 
New Jersey,' New Hampshire, Con¬ 
necticut, Delaware, Vermont and Mas¬ 
sachusetts combined. It is 360 miles 
long and 290 miles wide. The State is 
divided into two parts by the Cascade 
Range of mountains, each having en¬ 
tirely different climatic conditions. The 
western part has plenty of rain to pro¬ 
duce good crops, while most of the 
eastern part must be irrigated. In the 
western part lies the famous Willamette 
Valley, one of the greatest farming 
regions of the world. Our home is in 
Washington County, a part of this val¬ 
ley. It was first settled in the early 
fifties. Dr. McLoughlin of Hudson Bay 
Company fame said “It is the finest 
portion of North America for the home 
of civilized man,” but somebody re¬ 
ported it “wet,” and the East has been 
taking counsel of his prejudices all 
these years, leaving the few early set¬ 
tlers in possession of too much land for 
profitable cultivation, as the State, in 
the early day, gave to the head of the 
family a half section, or 320 acres, and 
to the wife the other half, if she wanted 
it. She general’y wanted it. So here 
is an immense ngion for settlement and 
development. Here is a comparatively 
new land with a great future before it. 
Only about one-half of this county with 
an area of nearly half a million acres 
of land is under cultivation. Here is 
surplus land and yonder in the East 
are surplus people. 
By the way, though, this land is not 
to be had for the asking—it costs good 
money, but it is worth it. What is the 
present worth of a farm in this county, 
under these Oregon skies, where rain is 
abundant but not excessive, and the soil 
as fertile as the laboratory of Nature 
could well make it? No matter what it 
is worth to-day, next year it will sell 
at an advance, for Washington County 
is at the very door of the steadily 
growing city of Portland, the beautiful 
metropolis of the Northwest. Land 20 
miles out from Philadelphia is valued 
at $600 and $700 per acre—land around 
Portland will be just as valuable, and 
in a much shorter time, for events are 
now moving rapidly in this western 
land. 
Now as to prices of land per acre; 
when I say, it ranges from $10 to $500, 
you will at once exclaim “Why so much 
difference?” I cannot well explain to 
you why, only that so many things exist 
here to affect the value of land. Brush 
land away up in the hills from $10 to 
$30; this is land from which the timber 
was all cut years ago; much of it is 
quite free from stumps as it was never 
densely timbered. Stump land from $25 
to $35 an acre; this land has been 
heavily timbered, so has many large 
stumps. Clearing such land is no child’s 
play, but it is ready to produce the best 
of crops as soon as cleared and culti¬ 
vated. Timbered land may be had for 
from $50 to $100 per acre, depending 
upon number of feet of logs per acre 
and nearness to a sawmill or trans¬ 
portation. Improved lands from $100 
on up. Much of the difference in value 
is caused by the location; whether it be 
valley, plain, bench or hill land, and 
what its transportation facilities are. 
Three railroads and two electric lines 
are in the county. Dirt roads are 
gradually being worked and graded into 
good condition. 
Is it a good dairy country? Some 
one has said “the cow is the corner¬ 
stone of agricultural prosperity,” and 
this is especially true in our county, 
which is a good dairy section. This 
soil produces marvelous crops of grass, 
oats, vetch, clover, fodder, turnips, kale 
and rape, all valuable to the cowman; 
then the climate favors the cow, in the 
long season of green feed, in the open 
W inter, in the ease with which root 
crops are produced for Winter feed. 
What could be better for the cow, than 
life in the open with soft air and green 
feed? A good price is always paid for 
all dairy products. 
What of the hen? She’s all right. 
The price of eggs is seldom below 20 
cents, the average for the year perhaps 
35 cents. Portland ships in considera¬ 
ble poultry and eggs from the East dur¬ 
ing the entire year, so we have a good, 
strong market at hand. The open-air 
henhouse and the fireless brooder are 
“ideal with us, very little snow, dry 
weather while chicks are growing, 
cholera unknown, excellent market; for 
what more can we ask in this line of 
business ? 
In this county every farm has its 
family orchard and berry patch, but 
as yet the commercial orchards are not 
numerous, although quite a number 
have been put out during the past two 
years—apple, prune, cherry, grape and 
English walnuts. There is no reason 
why fruit should not be a great indus¬ 
try here, for soil, climate and command¬ 
ing position as to markets of the world 
are at hand. There are hundreds of 
acres of good horticultural land lying 
undeveloped, just waiting for capital 
and labor to make them productive. 
How about the truck farm? All vege¬ 
tables do well in this vegetable mold 
of the centuries, and in this climate 
fashioned by the warm south-west 
breeze and the Japan Current. All kinds 
of garden truck can be grown as field 
crops, thus doing away with much of 
the “puttering work of ordinary 
gardening. Washington County most 
likely produces more onions than any 
one county in the United States. The 
rich bottom land, or beaver-dam land, 
as it is called, is just right for thq 
onion. Oregon grown onions have won 
a national reputation for mildness of 
flavor also for good keeping qualities. 
Some one in the East in an article on 
onion culture said, “Any dunce, who 
is willing to work can grow 300 bushels 
of onions on an acre,” but this same 
dunce under Oregon skies can grow 
600 bushels. Can a dunce do better 
than that in any other land? 
The hill lands are best for the potato, 
and many late ones are grown in our 
locality. If the ground of an old clover 
field is thoroughly prepared before 
planting, so it is clean and mellow, no 
after culture is required. Planted the 
first part of July, no cultivation, no 
potato pests to fight, but as fine tubers 
as you ever saw, dug after first killing 
frost, generally in November—good 
market, good prices. 
Are the roads just awful during the 
rainy season? The soil is so fine, that 
after a few rains the roads pack down 
and are muddy only where water stands [ 
—not a sticky mud though—but just : 
sloppy and full of ruts. ‘Where well j 
worked they make good roads. 
How about educational advantages ? 
The county is quite well supplied with 
public schools that compare very favor¬ 
ably with the country schools of the 
East. 1 he Tualatin Academy was es¬ 
tablished in this county in 1849 at 
I'orest Grove, and the Pacific University 
was added in 1854. This university is 
one of the leading educational institu¬ 
tions on the Pacific Coast. It is beauti¬ 
fully located on a campus of thirty 
acres, almost in the center of the town. 
As I said before, the best part of the 
story cannot be told of such a land as 
the Willamette Valley, in such a loca¬ 
tion, and with such a climate. The lay 
of the land, the bountiful resources, the 
statistics of production, the chemistry of 
the soil, and the various industries are 
only a small part of the story. The 
spirit of it, the charm of the country, 
the lure of the land, the attraction of 
a home in this atmosphere among these 
fir-clad hills and in view of these ever¬ 
green mountains, crowned with snowy 
peaks, the largeness of things, the sense 
of freedom, the “being glad you are 
alive” feeling—cannot be put into words, 
blit must become an actual experience. 
We who know Oregon would not ex¬ 
change her air, her verdure, her pure 
water, her great mountains, her beauti¬ 
ful scenery for anything of like charac¬ 
ter the world over. Washington County 
is California improved upon, having 
rich soil, wholesome and pleasant 
climate and what California has not, 
an abundance of pure, soft water. 
However, do not think of coming 
here with the idea that it is an easy 
thing to find a “soft snap” at big pay, 
for there are already too many who are 
seeking “light employment” at a large 
salary. On the other hand there are 
splendid opportunities for diversified 
farming and a demand for mechanics 
of all kinds, for laborers, for good 
teachers, for men and women who are 
able to do any one thing a little better 
than the other fellow, and for all who 
are willing to work. It is not certain 
that you will like it at first, but that 
you will soon be delighted with it is a 
general experience. There were prizes 
here for the pioneers; there are still 
rich opportunities for the right kind of 
men. 
Now I am not in the real estate busi¬ 
ness, nor have I any land to sell, neither 
am I paid for advertising Oregon; 
neither have I said these things to boast, 
but have tried to point out conditions 
as they exist in answer to the many 
questions asked me by Eastern friends, 
since writing my first article on Oregon 
for The R. N.-Y. e. m. s. 
Hungarian Goulash. 
Can you give me a good recipe lor Hun¬ 
garian goulash? MRS. m. b. u. 
Goulash varies with different cooks, 
but the following is an excellent recipe, 
and it is very savory. Slice an onion 
and cook in three tablespoonfuls of 
pork fat until it is thoroughly browned. 
Remove the onion and turn in a pound 
of lean veal and one half pound of beef 
cut in very small cubes. Brown these 
in the fat thoroughly, remove the meat 
from the pan and place in a casserole. 
Add one and one half pints of boiling 
water and a teaspoonful of paprika. 
Cover the dish and place in the oven. 
Place more fat in the frying pan and 
when smoking hot pour into it a dozen 
or so balls cut from pared potatoes, 
one half dozen small onions and one- 
half dozen balls cut from carrots and 
the same number cut from turnips. 
Add them to the casserole after the 
meat has cooked for an hour and a 
half. After the sauted vegetables are 
added, add one teaspoonful of salt, one 
half of a bay leaf and one clove and 
two tablespoonfuls of flour mixed to 
a thin paste with cold water. Pour this 
into the casserole and stir about until 
the broth is slightly thickened. Add a 
cupful more of boiling water, stir 
thoroughly and just before the cover is 
put on again, place one chopped Chili 
pepper in the dish and cover it. Cook 
gently for another hour and a half. 
Serve this from the casserole. 
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of 
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1 
E 
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1 
■ 
II 
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n No. C2600 (Willi 
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$ 75o 
Bui. 50e Dion til 
