FINANCES. The receipts into the Treasury from all sources from September 10, 1860, to September 8, 1862, were......... Add balance in Treasury, September 10, 1860...... $91,788 04 3,899 01 $95,687 05 The expenditures for the same period, including $459 16 interest paid by the Treasurer, were.......... Balance remaining in Treasury, Sept. 8, 1862. $55,831 55 -$95,687 05 Sources of Income. Items of Expenditure. Taxes for two years................. $91,596 04 Legislative expenses.................. Balance from Sept. 10, 1860............... Executive expenditure.......................................... $9,408 50 192.00 3,899 01 9,483 33 EDUCATION. Four colleges have been incorpo- Agriculture.-Oregon is admirably adapted to rated by the State: viz., the State Agricultural agricultural pursuits. Western Oregon has extenCollege, at Eugene City, Lane co., incorporated sive valleys, well adapted to the growth of fruit, Sept. 1862; Willamette University, at Salem, un- especially apples, pears, plums, and shrub-fruits, der the direction of the Methodists; Pacific Uni- in which it is unsurpassed; considerable portions versity, at Forest Grove, Washington co., founded of this land are also well adapted to cereals; the by the Congregationalists, and McMinnville Col-mountain-slopes form excellent pasture-lands, and lege, at McMinnville, Yamhill co., under the charge of the Baptists. The United Brethren in Christ have also a school, which they are endeavoring to raise to a college, at Sublimity, Marion co. Common Schools.-Congress has granted to Oregon, as to all the new States, one-eighteenth of the surveyed lands for educational purposes, and the fund arising from the sale of these lands has been in most cases paid into the county treasuries. About $16,000 of the School and University funds was in the State Treasury in 1862. The large grants of land to settlers in Western Oregon have caused the population to be too much scattered to maintain good schools, except in the villages and towns; but this evil is fast disappearing, and there are now common schools established in almost every neighborhood. Eastern Oregon is settling much of this country is equal to any in the United States above 40° of latitude for sheep and cattle raising. Eastern Oregon is also well adapted to grazing; and though but little rain falls east of the Cascade Mountains except during the autumn, yet the bunch-grass (festuca) forms abundant and excellent pasturage. The wool-clip of the State in 1861 was 444.000 lbs.; in 1862, in consequence of the flood, 344,000 lbs. The lands of Eastern Oregon, especially in the valleys of the Des Chutes and John Day Rivers, from their rich soil and hot summers, are also admirably suited to the culture of the sorghum, which has already been commenced with great success. The Klamath basin is better adapted to grazing than any thing else. Southeast Oregon, east of the Burnt River. is a sterile desert region, forming a portion of the Great Salt Lake Basin. METEOROLOGY OF OREGON. 1. Observations at Fort Hoskins, Lat. 44° 31′ N., Long. 122° 11′ W., October 1, 1861, to April 1, 1862. By H. Carpenter, A.A. Surgeon, U.S.A. days mean. mean. cloudy. Hygrom. Number Number Number Number Amount days of rain. rain. NOTE. The semi-annual mean of the thermometer was 40° 17', and, as will be noticed, the monthly mean was above the freezing-point, except in January, and even during that month but little more than 50 below it. The snow and rain fall, and the number of cloudy days, are remarkable, as well as the amount of rain-fall. 2. Amount of Rain-fall from October 1 to April 1 for five years, at Fort Umpqua, Lat. 43° 49′ N., Long. 124° 15′ W. from Greenwich. NOTE. The snow-fall is included with the rain. It would appear from this table that in that part of Oregon the winters of 1858-59 and 1861-62 were exceptional in the large amount of rain-fall. Climate.-The impression is very general that Oregon has an exceedingly moist climate. This is only true of Western Oregon and of that portion of it lying west of the Coast Range and on the western slope of that range. At Fort Umpqua, on the coast, about lat. 44°, the average rain-fall of five years was 56 inches. At Astoria there were on an average of three years 70 rainy days during the winter; in Willamette Valley, 43; while at Peoria, Ill., usually considered a very dry climate, there were 37. The average annual temperature in Western Oregon is 520.64. There were, in Dec. 1861, and June, 1862, two great floods in Western Oregon,-the first occasioned by a heavy rain and the melting of the snows around the head-waters of the Willamette, which caused great destruction of property along its banks; the second, from the melting of snow east of the Cascade Range, which raised the waters of the Lower Columbia and set back the current of the Willamette, so that it stood, on the 14th of June, at Portland, 28 feet above low-water mark. Eastern Oregon has a very dry climate, little or no rain falling except in the autumn. Both sections are considered very salubrious. Religious Denominations.-The following table exhibits the numbers of the different religious denominations in the State in the summer of 1862: Mineral productions.-Eastern Oregon, especially that portion traversed by the Blue Mountains, is rich in minerals. Gold is abundant and easily mined on the Salmon and other tributaries of the Snake River, and rich mines were opened in 1861 and 1862 on the John Day and Powder Rivers, which yield larger amounts than the best California mines. The product of the Oregon mines in 1862 was estimated, from carefully-collected data, to exceed $12,000,000. The large yield of these mines has brought a large increase of population to Eastern Oregon. Silver, lead, copper, and iron of extraordinary purity are also found in the State, and coal of good quality has been mined the past year in Coos county. Military Affairs.-Being situated at so great a distance from the seat of war, and having a small population, themselves liable to attack from the Indian tribes within their boundaries, Oregon has not been required to furnish a quota of troops for the war; but the Legislature of 1862 passed a law for the organization of a militia force, which, by express enactment, is to be subject to the call of the President; and a considerable number of her citizens joined the California contingent which came forward in the service of the General Government in the autumn of 1862. A regiment of cavalry raised in the State are performing garrison duty, and thus relieving the regular army troops, who have by this means been enabled to join the army at the East. |