, 1873-08-21
Washington Territory.

R. Graham" merely as text upon
which to give true description of the
country in and about Puget Sound, a
country which has been greatly misrep-
resented both by it's friends and its enc
mics. From the highly poetic descrip-
! tions put forth in the interests of the
Railroad Company and the Land Ring,
while the soil. climate, and natural re-
sources of the country are not one whit
exaggerated, the reader gathers no idea
of the topography of the county, or its
dark and forbidding features to the
casual observer Hence the resident Of
the old Northwest, accustomed to lawn
like prairies and park-like forests, pic
lures in his imagination like physical
features, with all the additional advan-
tages ascribed to this country by the
subsidized writers, and on his first visit
to this region, sees in his disappoint-
ment nothing but the rugged and repul-
sive features first presented to the trav
eller, and is ready to pronounce every
other description lie and cheat. So
in regard to climate; the traveller from
the East, passing through the dry, arid
atmosphere Of California or the Isthmus
finds his system not in sympathy with
the tonic atmosphere produced by the
sea on one side and the snow-capped
mountains on the other, and complains
of the damp and chill; few months
later he is ready to affirm that it is the
most invigorating ana delightful climate
in the Woodland that is the testimony
of all old settlers upon the Sound. An
illustration in point: During our coldest
weather last winter, accompanied by
furry of snow, two gentlemen arrived
here from Minnesota by the way OF Cal
ifornia. They both expressed themselves
with entire confidence that they had
never experienced colder weather in
Minnesota. We pointed to thermom-
eter hanging upon an outer wall marking
thirty degrees above zero; then to our
telegraphic dispatches of the same date,
reporting the weather at st. Paul forty
degrees below zero showing the slight
difference of seventy degrees between
the two points, which our visitors failed
to comprehend by their feelings.
The climate of Puget Sound, and the
atmospheric conditions, are almost iden
tical with those of Ireland" ever
green Isle." A table of mean tempera-
lures for each month of the year. shows
not three degrees difference for any one
month. For the year, Steilacoom sos,
Dublin 49.7. The salu5rity and equi-
bility of the climate of Ireland are world
renowned and the country around Puget
Sound is its peer in every particular.
The soil and climate are specially ia
vorable to the growth of wheat, oats,
grass, and wonderful in the production
of all root crops and garden vegetables,
but too cool and humid to be favorable
to the production of Indian corn OF
vines, though both are grown to some
extent, and for apples, pears, plums,
cherries, and the most of the smaller
fruits. this country is not e1celled by
any in the world either in quality OF
productiveness, and it is very rare that
either fruits, grain or garden vegetables
are injured by frost, and grasses and
many Towering plants keep up per-
petual growth and successive bloom
through the year.
The lumber and coal business upon
the Sound are yet in their infancy, but
aggregate business of over $4,000, 900
annually, and give employment to sew
eral thousand white men at good wages.
There is but one lumber company and
one coal company doing business under
incorporation. and none of them employ
Cinnamon when they can get white la
borers at one-third higher wages. The
most successful mill owners and ship
rers commenced here as laborers for
wages or loggers, and no steady, indus.
trious man within our knowledge has
ever failed to find employment here at
good wages.
There is but small portion of this
country which is not valuable either for
: timber or for agricultural purposes.
That described as "covered with a
thick growth of valueless TIMBER will
produce an average of 100000 feet of
the most valuable lumber for building
or spars and ship timbers of an equal
| value. Enterprising loggers get rich
, by paying so cents thousand stumpage
for the standing timber, at the rate OF
$25 an acre for wild lands. We have
; seen orchards planted upon these fl
timbered lands. producing 20 bushels OF
superior apples to the tree when six
years old. These are regarded as among
our poorest lands. The agricultural
lands proper, of which there are many
thousands of unoccupicd acres, are as
rich and endurable as any lands in the
world, and are as easily cleared as any
of the heavily timbered portions of any
of the old States of New York, Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, or any
part of Door county, Wisconsin, and
yield mvch more abundantly. Ten
acres will yield more for the same labor
here than hundred acres would there.
Every hill and valley in this country
abounds in pure spring water, and every
stream with trout; deer are abundant,
grouse swarm around every farm yard;
every bayou and river are alive with
| wild geese and ducks of the most dali