The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-02-19

III answer to Eastern correspondents
too numerous to answer personally,
we will try and condense answers to
their questions into Il short letter to
them in this form. Western Wash
ington has very mild and even eli
mate, the thermometer rarely falling
to zero and rarely raising above 90.
In Eastern Washington the range is
wider, say from l50 below to 1902 above
zero. Snow usually falls in both West
ern and Eastern Washington every
winter, but does not continue on the
ground more than few days in West
ern and few weeks at most in East
ern Washington. Cattle winter in
both sections without other food than
grows in the pastures. There is, how
ever, such variety of climates, ac-
cOrding to the location, whether on
the sea coast in the valleys of the in
terror, or on the sides and in the can
yons of the Cascade range, that any
man can be suited with exactly the
kind he likes, anywhere between the
mildest and best on the continent, and
the ruggedneS> of i.apland. We write
from where snow cannot lay beyond Il
few days in the seVereSt winter and
where we have seen but Il dozen snowy
days in five years, yet could look out
from our window upon perpetual snow
but for intervening buildings. Gov
ernment land can be had under home
stead and pre-emptiOn laws all over
the country from within ten miles of
this city to the tops of the mountains,
and away eastward toward Idaho and
northward to the British line. Some
is within "railrOad limits,0 where but
eighty acres can be homesteadcd. and
some beyond, where the head of II
family can take up 100 acres. En-
soldiers can take 100 acres anywhere.
Some of it Is timbered, some Is brush
land, some open prairie, and some
hilly; every variety, in fact, that could
be desired, except sterile, rocky or
worthless land-yet this can be had
by climbing the mountains. There
has been some difficulty in obtaining
work easily and readily as Il farm hand
in winter, but in summer all can find
work, in fact there is no country in
the world where 4 poor man, with
vim and ambition, can so readily bet
ter his condition as in Washington
Territory. \ new impetus to railroad
building will make the certainty Of
labor greater in the future than it has
been in the past. We doubt if an
honest man ever suffered for want Of
work in this Territory, though here a.
elsewhere, there are those who eteT-
nally ''want work. without getting ii.
rha onhorftIpiti a. for cart ln aud Sb.ap
farming are still good, though the
rapid settlement of the frontier coun-
try is likely soon to interfere with the
business. Farming proper is more
certain and profitable in Washington
Territory than in any OF the Western
States, rs the climatic conditions do
not produce storms. sudden changes,
frostS, or scOurgeS of any kind to dam
age crops. The only notable instance
of the kind was Il partial loss of the
crop in Il few sections in the VILLAIN
cite valley from rust once in 30 years.
Indians are no more of a bugbear in
the farmers way in Washington Ter
rtory than in Connecticut, unless he
chooses To 90 beyond all Others and
among them. Plenty of government
land can be obtained where one would
never see an Indian. Farm products
bring as good prices on the average at
Portland aS they DO in Chicago, Mil
waukce or st. Louis. Fruits of all
kinds grow in the greatest protusiOn,
astonishing TO Eastern people. I'M
proved farms are held at from S2.5O 10
S75 per acre, according TO location,
character, improvements, fences, build-
ings, etc.