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CHAPTER XVIII

THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE

The states of the Pacific Northwest are usually described as primarily agricultural. The first settlements were made by farmer folk from the Mississippi Valley states, and farming has always been a leading industry throughout the region. In 1910 the three states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho had a combined population of 2,140,349, Of this total, 1,157,861 are classed in the census report as rural, which means that they lived either in the open country or in towns and villages having not to exceed 2,500 people. The number of farms in the three states was 132,501. If we allow five persons to the farm, which is probably a low minimum, the actual farm population would aggregate 662,505, or approximately thirty-one per cent of the whole. The total wealth of the three states was reckoned at $5,771,020,243, and the value of all farm property was $1,471,104,378, somewhat over twenty-five per cent.

At the date of the first census which took account of Oregon, the census of 1850, the number of farms was given as 1,164, ^^^ the average value of a farm with buildings and all personal property attached to the