The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-08-18
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON co.

The farmers hereabouts are now in
the midst of wheat harvest, but from
all accounts the yield is not up to the
average of former years, owing, as is
supposed, to the cool and wet spring
and the extremely hot weather of early
summer. Yet crops are by no means a
failure. What Improvements have been
been made in harvesting machinery in
the last twenty-five years 1 cannot
recall without shudder the tedious,
the slavish labor required to garner an
acre of grain quarter of a century ago,
and almost wonder how men survived
their arduous toll week after week un-
der burning sun; but now, bless me,
anybody can harvest grain Perhaps,
however, we might discover, did we es-
say the task of driving the reaper or the
header wagon, that we had not properly
estimated the necessary labor. You
know that Pat, in a fit of enthusiasm
over his prospects in America, wrote
home to his brother that he was paid
dollar day and did not have to work
at all. Said he, 81 only carry the bricks
to the top of the ladder and the man up
there does all the work"
Farming lands command high prices
along the line of the railroad, which
proves that whether that enterprise has
been profitable to the stockholders or
not, it has benefited the settlers in
many ways. Not only has 1t greatly
enhanced the price of their lands, but it
affords them facilities, at reasonable
rates, of getting their produce to market
at any time of the year, and little as
the people seem to appreciate the west
side railroad, they would greatly miss
it were its trains discontinued. True,
they run no lightning express trains on
this side, and one is forcibly reminded,
characteristic of the st. Joe mail train,
of the humorous wood-cut lin one of
Mark Twain's books where the cow
catcher is represented as attached to the
passengers against infuriated bovines.
But what's the difference? They make
each station "On time," nOtwithstand-
ing their numerous stoppages at noun
tain springs, cross roads, and berry
patches. Then our slow pace is fully
compensated by the consideration that
) the traveller can get perfect view of
the country as he passes along. Or
should he tarry over long at some linn
, pid mountain fountain, or digress too
far from his course in quest of birds or
berries, he can, without extra exertion,
soon regain his comfortable cushion.
: Yesterday we made a visit to Mr.
: Reeds celebrated stock farm, and al
, though our education in pork and pedi-
grees has been sadly neglected, we were
more than pleased with the neatness
: and order that characterized every de-
partment of the premises. Nor did we
f fail to observe that there are originals
} for the pretty pictures that we have
gazed with admiration at in patent Of
/ flee reports, when short-hOrns and
= berkshires were represented. We re-
t member that when comparing those
symetrical models with the illy-shaped
, cattle and wind-splitting swine of the
old Sucker State, that we concluded
3 men could make prettier pictures of cat
| tie and hogs than ever the Almighty
, furnished model for; but we gave it
: up when we walked out among Mr..
Reeds blooded stock.
In this same neighborhood resides, in
quaint oil farmhouse, one of the
early pioneers of this country, who
came here in '43, and has resided on the
e same spot ever since; and many are the
. hardships and privations she, with the
brave few that accompanied her, were
: compelled to endure, and we'll has she
merited the comfortable home and sur.
rOundings that are vouchsafed her in
her declining years. | have been par
, ticularly interested in her recital of the
I dangers she encountered from prowling
2 wolves and other wild beasts that liter
| ally swarmed over the country at that
f early day. Night after night, while heI
husband was working away from home,
I has the surrounding wood been vocal
/ with their soul-chilling howls, and not
e infrequently has she seen their flaming
= eyeballs peering through the interstices
I in her rude cabin walls, and been COM
PEELED to defend herself with her hus-
I bands rifle.
All honor to the brave and determined
f women who led the van of civilization
r in this proud young State will state
1 while speaking of our kind hostess, that
after having by dint of privation and
a toll accumulated a competency, she
was suddenly bereft of her husband by
q the hand of a fellow-being. A costly
marble now marks the pioneer hus.
q bands last resting-place within g
I stones throw of the quaint old cottage
he had prepared for his growing family,
n and the inscription thereon tells the
3 mournful story-"A. J. NJ, shot by
b J. NJ October II, 1856"
t might perhaps moralize here, but
' surely the inscription teaches its OWL
sad lesson. =.
ReedviIle, August 7, 1876.