, 1878-09-12
MOVE ON THE LANDS.
lCor. st. LOUIS Republican,

EDITOR REPUBLICAN - nave read
your editorial of July %, entitled
"Move on the Lands" and having
travelled recently over this part OF
the public domain | would like to
suggest what lands to move upon.
A fortnight ago l left WaIla
Walla for Spokane falls in Stevens
county, Washington Territory, a dis
tance of 120 miles. | went ostensi-
bly, for trout fish but really also to
see that part of this much-vauntcd
country. The fishing, | must say,
was little ahead of anything | had
ever seen and equal to anything !
Ihad ever read about. The trout are
of remarkable size, countless in
numbers and surprising gameness.
The falls of the Spokane are really
three in number-the first a simple
cascade, the second about twenty
five feet in height and the third fully
sixty feet perpendicular. Over these
a stream three hundred feet wide
and very swift and deep rushes with
a laundering sound that can be heard
for miles. stood below the main
cataract and with my number one six
and half ounce Abbey & lnbrie
split bamboo, hooked and landed
some of the finest specimens of the
speckled trout | ever beheld. Many
Of them measured sixteen inches,
and the number depended entirely
or the length Of time you were will,
ing to spend upon the sport. At
one cast of my line | hooked three
beauties-two weighing one and a
quarter pounds each, and one three
quarters Of a pound-and what is
more, landed them safely! My only
regret was that my happy lot could
not have been shared by Judge
Hough, Dan Able, or some of those
enthusiastic disci pies of old Izaac
Walton, pho haunt the waters of
Black River in the fall season.
When | remark that tho country
through which we passed was alive
with prairie chickens, ! could hardly
add to its glory as paradise for the
sportsman.
But to return to our muttons-or
rather the lands. We passed through
Walla Walla, Columbia, Whitman
and Stevens counties. These en-
brace an area of fully $1,000 square
miles. In all my life l never saw
such 6eles of wheat, barley and oats.
Fully two-thirds Of thes land are the
best of plow lands and risk nothing
in saying that in no other part of the
world is there such a prolific yield of
wheat, barley and oats. In Whit
man county stayed with James S.
Davis, an enlightened farmer, who
tells me the soil is only scratched
over as general thing; yet Whit.
man county last year averages 35
bushels to the acre. About 10000
acres are under cultivation this year.
Mr.. Davis is a careful farmer and
thrifty man and doesn't scratch his
land, consequently his yield per acre
on forty acae field that he carefully
measured was just 1900 bushels.
1t is land abounding in streams
and living springs, with salubrious
climate and the nights so cool that
blanket is military necessity. No
no hostile Indians have set foot this
year on Washington Territory. There
were few in Eastern Oregon, but
they have been whipped into sub.
mission. This country is filling up
rapidly, considering its distance from
the centres Of population; and yet
there are millions of acres of the
very best land in the world open to
pre.emption and homestead at from
S1.25 to $3.50 per acre. If there
are any tramps in your country left
let them come out and take up a
farm. They will never regret it.
| find hosts of well to-do Nilsson
rians. At Colfax, in Whitman coun.
ty, James Odell, Esq, an attorney,
who was in 1868 member of the
legislature from New Madrid. He
was one of the fifteen who sat at
Walla Walla and framed constitu
tion for the inchoate State of Wash
ington. In Stevens county, E. San
ders, who came out from Howard
county to Oregon in 1857. He tells
me his wheat runs from thirty.ffve
to fifty bushels to the acre-which is
doing well for a Pike.
To show the prosperous condition
of these "humbIe ti!lers of the soil"
let me say that | scarcely went into
"A house that had not the latest style
Of sewing machine and in many !
found pianos and parIor organs.
Their wheat last year averaged them
over SOC bushel, and it cost only
zoe per hushel (this is a fact) to
grow and thresh it, you will prrceve
there is handsome margin for profit.
Last season was, however, an excep.