Taking into account the quality of the flax grown in the State and the indefinite power of expansion of the product, seeing that the very edge of the flax-land has hardly yet been touched, while many thousand acres are specially fit for the crop, and considering, also, that linen in its various forms is unnaturally dear on the Pacific coast, it seems a pity that one or more linen-factories should not be established. The present disturbed state of Ireland has, we know, prepared many of its inhabitants for emigration, and among them are many trained in the growth, the preparation, and the manufacture of flax. Any persons familiar with this industry could not do better than transfer themselves, their capital, their machinery, and their staff of workers, to this free land; here they will find a hearty welcome, a fine climate, the very best of raw material, a market at their doors, unlimited opening for expansion of their business, and a habitation free alike from turbulence, riot, and oppression. No book attempting to deal, in however general terms, with the industrial development of Oregon, can pass the business in canned salmon without notice. The growth of the business has been marvelous. The following table shows the canning of the Columbia River salmon during the ten years ending with 1880: Year. Cases. Year. Cases. 1871 35,000 1876 429,000 1872 44,000 1877 393,000 1873 103,000 1878 412,924 1874 244,000 1879 440,000 1875 291,000 1880 540,000 Each case contains four dozen tins of one pound each, or two dozen of two pounds. The total output of the Pacific coast for 1880 is estimated at 680,000 cases. [Sidenote: _SALMON._] Besides the Columbia River, which is the main source of supply, other Oregon rivers are laid under tribute. The Rogue River, the Alsea, Umpqua, Coquille, Nehalem, Siletz, and Yaquina Rivers are all salmon-yielding streams. The system followed is generally known. The proprietor erects his cannery on the edge of the river, generally on piles driven into the mud. The cannery consists of a large warehouse for laying out the fresh salmon as soon as caught. Next comes a building fitted with large knives for cutting up the salmon into the proper length for canning, and boilers in which the cans or tins are boiled. Then come the packing and storing houses. That the undertaking need be on a large scale may be judged from the fact that they may have to deal with three or four thousand salmon at a time, as the produce of one night's take, and these salmon averaging twenty-five pounds in weight. The canneries make their own tins, one man, by the aid of ingenious machinery, putting together fifteen hundred tins in a day.