Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/152

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Passing from the eastern part of the State where dry-farming is found to be the only means of comprehensive reclamation of the uplands, we come to the Willamette Valley where dry” farming has been practiced so long that the lands are beginning to rebel and other methods must soon be adopted if homes are to be found for an increasing population. Here the conditions are entirely revened and that intensive agriculture which tends t0 unhiniitd subdivision of the lands is only posibIe through extensive irrigation. Dry-farming for arid Oregon and inigatkm for humid Oregon—these very paradoxical things must be encouraged if homes are to be found in Oregon for all who would live here.

Some of this area Is in the rolling foot-hiII, but it is nfe to assume that one-half is in urgent need of reclamation by irrigation and drainage. This valley at the present time is the most undeveloped section of Oregon, when natural advantages are compared. It has the longest growing season of any section of the State; soil rich and deep; absence of long and severe winter conditions; is practically at sea level; partly improved; convenient to railway and water transportation; accessible to extensive and rowing local markets; and is favored with warm, cloudless summer weather. The land is held in large units as in all thy-fanning sections, because even with intensive cultivation a small unit cannot support a family for lack of moisture during the growing season. A general increase in the farming population of the valley cannot be expected, therefore, until hlew methods are introduced.

Anything that will promote new methods of agriculture should be eagerly undertaken by the commercial interests of the valley, for it is stated upon good authority that 80 par cent of the jobbing business of Portland is dependent upon local consumers. A still larger per cent of the business of the valley towiis is dependent upon loaI farm population. If, therefore, a method of agriculture can be Introduced which will result in placing from 10 to 30 families upon each square mile where on an average only one or two families now live. the commercial and industrial interests of the cities and towns would profit in proportion.

It is becoming generally known throughout the east that the most oroductive and highest-priced lands are in those portions of the west where irrigation is practiced. Irrigation bonds are in great demand, and irrigation projects are being eagerly sought after. To hold in the face of existing facts that rrigation is not necessary in the Willamette Valley, is to drive away capital and retard settlement, rather than to encourage it.