Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1879-11-14

WALLA WALLA, Oct. 20, 1879.

ascertain what is to be the future OF
their fair city, let them come up here
and make a tour Of this eastern coun-
try. Reading will not enable a per
son to acquire knowledge of the vast
wheat trade which will hereafter pour
into the lap of the city of Portland
and which viii enrich and build up in
the future the states of Oregon and
Washington. To realize what it is to
be one must come and see for himself.
No one can imagine the progress
which these countries have been max
ing since 1874 in agricultural and pas
toral products, with the limited immi-
grafton they have had nor the great
future in store for this country.
Travelling from Pendlton in Oregon
on to Lewiston in Idaho, tract OF
country 1873 miles long, you see the
stubhie OF continuous wheat fields
which have yielded on an average
thirty bushels of wheat per acre. Yet
along this route not one thirtieth por-
ton Of the land fit for raising wheat
has been placed in cultivation. Walla
Walla is doing ut present a trade in
shipping wheat down the Columbia
river, which, takes all the time and the
energies Of her citizens and yet the
cry is that the Wallula railroad and
the o. s. y. Go. cannot supply cars
nor steamers sufficient to take away
the grain here waiting for shipment,
and as a necessary consequence it is
said that over 10000 tons Of grain
have been sold and are laying here to
be carried away to your city, and still
farmers wagons are bringing wheat to
Walla Walla at the rate Of 500 tons
per day. One day last month l,02G
tons Of wheat it is said arrived here
in MBgops from this county and Co
lu&bhs county, and when | went to
Dayten We counted eighty-one wagons
with wheat entering Walla Walla
from one direction. Proceeding again
from Colfax to Lewiston you find dur
ing distance of forty eight miles
every alternate section has been plow-
ed and wheat being hauled to the
Snake river. From Colfax to Dayton,
distance of fifty miles, you find Tex
cept about Deadman's hollow and
along the Snake river) that whole
country settled up on partly settled
with sturdy, industrious immigrants
from the western states, and especially
from California. What has caused
these vacant lands to settle up so rap
idlya Tho knowledge that the North
ern Pacific Railroad Company and the
Oregon Navigation and Railway Com
pany will both very soon be running
wheat trains direct to Portland. An
ticipating this and procuring as they
naafs do presumption and homestead
claims from the government to the
best wheat lands on the north Pacific
coast at q mere nominal price COM
pared to their value, these immigrants
are not slow to appreciate the pros
pective advantages in store for them,
and along almost every road you trav-
ell in this country you pass immigrants
with their wagons and furniture GO
ing north IN search Of government
lands, mostly to the Palouse country.
All along the 200 miles Of road now
being constructed by the Northern
Pacific Railroad Company, except Is
or 20 miles around Ainsworth, you
find gool government land, with very
few settlers indeed, and which within
one year will have railroad facilities as
far north as spokan falls. Here is
chance for the Immigrant to obtain
landesvhiqn he cannot find elsewhere
so &tofnbay located, on the main line
of the Northern Pacific railroad, too,
Lands which ID Is no exagperation to
sax.uwill within ten years command
$40 to $50 per acre, and now offered
to TIA settler for az. so per acre by the
Unit&lf States What has been Sc
curep before without railroad facili-
ties can surely be safely predicted
with the certainty, as now seen, of 200
miles being built from Ainsworth to
Spn&an lfalls.s Here in this country
and within six miles Of Walla Walla
the finest wheat lands were selling for
$2.50 per acre in currency in 1869,
then really costing only Sl.75 in gold
coin, which to-day cannot be obtained
for $35 per acre, So also in Column
hias county, Washington Territory.
Five years ago the best wheat lands
therein could be obtained for 80 per
acre and to-day $50 per acre would
not buy them, and yet not one-seventh
Of Columbia county is in wheat cult
vation, and the town of Dayton, its
county seat, has a population of 1900
persons, and six years ago its site was
occupied for sheep grazing. Columbia
and Walla Walla counties have this
year alone raised So, 900 tons of wheat
and IN 1870 did not raise one bushel.
There are still open for settlement,
as near as | can ascertain, five to six
hundred square miles of land, through
(which railroads will run within Is