farmers possess neither sufficient enterprise nor a knowledge of thorough farming, such as is practised in the Eastern States and Europe. Too many confine themselves to producing only what can be produced with the least degree of effort and skill. Wheat-growing, than which no product can be raised anywhere with less labour than in Oregon, is about all this class attempt to follow. The number of such farmers as seek their ambition in getting the most out of the soil by growing a variety of products, and testing the capacity of their land by experiments with new articles, is altogether too small. There is especially an insufficiency of skilled dairymen, fruitgrowers, and vegetable gardeners. For these very reasons the opening for farmers who are accustomed to follow their business in a thorough manner, and understand the application of the teachings of science to agriculture, is particularly good in Oregon. POLITICAL DIVISIONS, POPULATION, Oregon is divided into twenty-three counties, the names of which are given in the following tables, extracted from the Report of the Secretary of State of Oregon for 1876. The tables give an account of the total value of assessable property in each of the counties, and of the amounts of the industrial products of various kinds produced by each, and thus afford at a glance a trustworthy estimate of their several capabilities and grades of development. The census of 1870 showed the population of Oregon to be 90,923. The estimate for the year 1875 gives a population of 104,920 whites, and 16,000 Indians and Chinese. Of the whites 58,883 are males, and 46,037 females. |