Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1879-01-10
w ashington Territory.

OWCiaI report IoE Tue year 1910. Ex-
tracts relative to Washington Territory
will be found elsewhere. They embody
much valuable information relative to
our climate, productions, resources, &C.,
and will be found interesting. He is
also sound on the Indian question.--D.
Ne,Us.
We have not been furnished with the
Governors report, so we take the fol-
lowing from the Dayton Neos:
The vast rolling prairies of Eastern
Washington make it one Of the best
grazing and wheat growing regions on
the continent. There is little timber,
except on the margins of the rivers and
smaller streams. 1t has an area of
wheat-iand capable of producing, with
ordinary culture, more than one hun.
dred million bushels annually. A fail
ure OF crops neUer occurs.
The present season the yield is re-
garded as not an average, and it will be
twenty-five bushels per acre. Forty to
sixty bushels are not unusual. The
wheat product of this region the past
season will be about one million five
hundred thousand bushels. One mil
lion bushels will be transported down
the Columbia river to Portland, and
from thence to Europe, and, as hereto
fore, will probably be claimed as a
product of the State of Oregon. All
the fruits, except tropical, and all vege-
tables, OF superior quality, are grown
in great abundance.
The climate and soil are particularly
adapted to the production of peaches
and grapes, large quantities OF which
are raised of unsurpassed excellence and
flavor. A very nutritious and indigcn-
Gus grass, known as "bunch grass"
.festuca pratenis, grows spontaneously
over many thousand square miles, af.
fording excellent range for stock. 1t is
self.curative and retains its nutritious
qualities when allowed to remain uncut.
The raising of stock is extensively
prosecuted. A market is found on
Puget Sound and 10 British Columbia,
and large numbers are annually driven
to the Union Pacific railroad aud thence
transported to Chicago.
1t can safely be asserted that Eastern
Washington will, in few years, rival
California in the production of all the
cereals, both as regards aggregate guam
tity raised and quality, and will far sur.
pass that of any other State in the av.
erage yield per acre. There is, how
ever, at present, one serious drawback
The only outlet for the products of this
region is down the Columbia river to
Portland. There are two distractions
to navigation in this river, the Cascades
and the Dalles. These are overcome to
certain extent by railroads constructed
around them; but as the entire trans
portation is now aud has been for years
controlled by one company, freigh,s are
necessarily very high.
At the present time the price oil
wheat in Eastern Washington is from
thirty. five to fifty cents per bushel, and
at Portland, Oregon, distance of about
two hundred miles, it is ninety cents
the cost OF transportation being Que
hundred per cent. for this short dis
lance. When the work Of construct
ing canals at the Cascades and The
Dalles, now being prosecuted by tht
general government, is completed, there
viii be an uninterrupted steamboat
navigation from the wheat growing re
gions of Eastern Washington and Ore
gon and Western Idaho to the Pacif,
ocean. There is no work of interna
Improvement now carried on BY tht
government which is Of more import
ance than those canals. Another out
let can be furnished by the construc
ton of the branch line of the Northern
Pacific railroad from Eastern Washing
ton across the Cascade mountains t,
Puget Sound. The advantages Of Thu
road to the whole Territory are almos
incalculable. 1t would afford ampl,
facilities for the mutual interchange o
the various dissimilar productions of tn
two sections. The coal aud lumber o
Puget Sound would be exchanged 70
tho wheat and other products of Eastern
Washington, and the surplus grail
production of the latter could be trans
ported 10 the western terminus Of tn
road and thence shipped to any part Q
the world.
The average temperature in Easter
Washington is as follows: Spring, $50
Summer, 73o; Autumn, $50; Winter
$40. The average annual rain fall i
about twenty inches.
Within the past two years publi
opinion 10 this Territory has RADICAL.
changed on the Indian question. Their
is now very strong feeling against tht
reservation system. This, to a grea
extent, has been created by the IudiaI
outbreak in Idaho last year and in Ore
gon during the present year. There j
also feeling Of insecurity in the mind
Of the settlers, especially in Easter
Washington. They are surrounded b,
d;s.Naotad anj diecontAntad Indian