Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/202

 88 LoN L. Swift During the next decade, farming- grew very slowly, and this condition is applicable to each and every part of the United States from i860 to 1870. The check was, without doubt, the result of the Civil War. The ten years from 1870 to 1880 marks a larger percentage of growth in Oregon than either of the two following decades. In the Western Division, Cal- ifornia and Washington, the period from 1880 to 1890 had the largest growth. It is peculiar to see how the percentage of growth has decreased in the Western Division, California, Washington and Oregon in the last decade, being in each case except Washington lower than that of the United States. California's was only 2.5 per cent, while the increase of the United States was 27.6. It would appear from this general lull in the rate of agricultural growth of the Western States during the last decade that the choice lands of this territory had al- ready been exploited before 1900, but the figures are mislead- ing, as the census reports were taken on a different basis. As percentages of growth by decades are, in appearance at least, somewhat deceiving, a more accurate idea of the real increase in agricultural wealth may be obtained by examining the figures in table 22. The total value of farm land in Oregon increased from 1850 to i860 approximately $17,000,- 000; from i860 to 1870, $8,000,000; from 1870 to 1880, $47,- 000,000; from 1880 to 1890, $66,000,000; from 1890 to 1900, $30,000,000. The two largest decades of growth were from 1870 to 1890, and that of the ten years following 1890 was less than half of the amount for the preceding decade. But this difference in the last decade was due largely to a differ- ence in the standard of valuation used in taking the census. Since 1870 the number of farms in Oregon has steadily increased at the rate of nine or ten thousand a decade, and the area of farm land also shows a constant increase. Up till 1890 the per cent of improved land was high, the average value per farm and per acre of farm land was on the rise, and the average area per farm was decreasing. This would tend to show that farming was becoming more intensive, and that