Page:Sunset Magazine vol. 31.pdf/456



county, the valley has $3,000,000 invested in grade and high schools and is spending $1,750,000 a year for teaching and maintenance, to say nothing of what's spent on colleges and universities. That's pretty good, too, isn't it, for 200,000 people?

If you think this prosperity has been brought about by big "bonanza" farming, you're entirely wrong. The very reverse is true. You'll see that when you see how that total of $42,000,000 a year of farm products sold is made up. Here's the way it figures out:

You don't see wheat mentioned in that list, do you? Maybe there was some wheat in the "miscellaneous" item, along at the tail end; but it didn't cut much of a figure. A few years ago, wheat would have headed the list; but the growing and marketing of wheat has gone entirely out of fashion. Day by day the big wheat farms of the old time are being split up into farm homes; the average size of these home farms grows less and less. Just a few days ago I saw, near Salem, in the heart of the valley, a tract of 640 acres—a square mile—which had been owned and operated by a single farmer up to the year 1910. Today that tract is supporting 42 families; and every one of those 42 farmers, each with his little plot, is faring far better than the original owner fared. That's the drift of things now in the Willamette valley—toward smaller holdings, diversification, and the better use of the acre.

You'll notice that I'm making a farm story out of this. The story of the Willamette valley is essentially a story for the farmer. I've been leaving out the towns on purpose. Not that this valley hasn't some fine towns in it. There's Salem, the state capital; there's Eugene, the seat of the State University; there's Corvallis, the home of the State Agricultural College; there's Oregon City, with a commanding position at the falls of the Willamette river and a certain future in manufacturing; there are Cottage Grove, and Albany, and