Page:The Overland Monthly, volume 1, issue 1.djvu/31

 The apple is fast becoming exclu- sively an Oregon product. The day is not far distant when the choice fruit of this country will rank first in all the apple markets of the world. The hand- ling and exporting this crop is already an important feature of the commerce of Portland. The first export of fruit from Portland was made by Meek and Lluelling, in 1853. They shipped two hundred pounds, for which they realized five hundred dollars. This was the first grafted or cultivated fruit ever offered for sale in the San Francisco market.

In 1854, the same parties sold forty bushels of Oregon apples in San Fran- cisco for $2,500. The export to San Francisco continued to increase.

During the next seven years, from the best information that can be obtained, the export and sale was as follows :

1855, 1,500 boxes, at soc. to $1 per lb.

1856, 5.000 “ ‘* 25¢. to75c.“ ‘*

1857, 15,000 ** 5c. to soc. “*

1858, 29,190 9c. te 35C. 1859, 72,000 “ 3¢. to 25¢. 1860, 86,000 “ 30. to x90. “ 1861, 75,394 ‘‘ at an average of 5c.

A box of apples in Oregon parlance is equal in bulk to a bushel, but of course the weight varies with the quality of the fruit.

Portland is well supplied with good water and gas. The latter was first introduced in 1857, by a company work- ing under a charter from the Assembly, exclusive for the period of fifteen years.

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per Ib.

The company have laid three and one-.

half miles of mains, from three to six inches in diameter, and their works are of sufficient capacity to supply a city of 30,000 population. For this brilliant substitute for the tallow-dips, links and rush-lights of our ancestors, we pay six dollars per 1,000 feet.

The water-works were commenced in 1856, under a city ordinance giving the simple right to lay pipes in the street. No change has been made in the matter. The company have two reservoirs on the verge of the city. One, two miles from the dam, supplied by a six-inch main, is one hundred feet square by fifteen feetdeep. Another, three-fourths of a mile from the dam, supplied by a seven and one-fourth inch main, is two hundred and twelve by two hundred feet square and fifteen feet deep. There are about eight miles of mains laid in the streets, from three to seven and one-fourth inches in diameter. A large- sized reserve reservoir is about to be constructed. For an ordinary family, with bath-room, water costs two dollars and fifty cents per month. Cisterns are quite common, or rather, were so. The best of water can be obtained in that way, but the superior convenience of the hydrant is bringing it into general use. I suppose the time will come (I know it ought to be nigh at hand) when the public, through the agency of its governments, will enjoy its water, gas and telegraphs at first cost, and without the intervention of middle men. To convert a municipal government into a practical “ Codperative Union,” for the purpose of supplying the community with either or all of these necessaries, is a very simple thing, provided one could be found or constituted with the requisite sense and integrity. In the meantime, the public must expect to pay for these things as it does for others—whatever price the seller can get for them.

The population of Portland is princi- pally engaged in mercantile and me- chanical pursuits—the latter being for the most part those required in house building and finishing. The Irish furnish a large share of the unskilled day labor and a few of the tradesmen and mechan- ics. Washing and wood-sawing have been monopolized by the Chinese, except what of the latter is done by machinery. They are also employed extensively as house servants. The negro population is comparatively small, but increasing by immigration and otherwise. So far it is moderately thrifty and well con-