The National tribune., 1882-08-12
A State in EmbryO.

against IulS SYSTEM
A State in Embryo.
1t is among the probabilities that before
the next Presidential election two more
States will be admitted to the Union, namely,
Dakota and Washington. Bills for their ad-
mission are even now pending in Congress,
but the present body is not likely to take
any action on them. The objection to the
reception of the former is that the Territory
tion, and to the latter that it does not as yet
possess sufficient population, but these OBJ
assembling of the Forty-eighth Congress.
With the physical characteristics of Dakota
the public are pretty familier, but we sus-
pect that, except in a general way, very little
is known of Washington Territory. 1t is so
remote from eastern civilization and so in
accessible except by way of the Pacific, that
even the newspapers furnish very little in
opment, and until the Northern Pacific Rail-
road enters its confines and reaches ter
minus on Puget Sound it will doubtless con-
tinue to be an unknown land to the majority
of our readers. Thanks, however, to dele
its admission as State has attracted much
more attention than is usually accorded to
such appeals, we are able to convey a much
better idea of the resources of the Territory
than has ever hitherto been possible, and
even if some details are still lacking it must
be admitted that the statistics already at
hand abundantly justify the prediction that
it is destined to become one of the greatest
States in the Union.
The Territory, as our readers are doubtless
aware, lies between British Columbia and
Oregon, on the north and south, and Idaho
and the Pacific Ocean, ON the east and west.
1t possesses an area of 69,994 square miles
of which 3,114 are water-and in size is
therefore little larger than Missouri and
little smaller than Nebraska Contained, as
it is, between the forty fifth and forty-ninth
parallels of North latitude, one would natur-
ally suppose its climate to be that of Canada
or northern Minnesota, but as matter of fact
it more nearly resembles that of California,
the winters being moist and mild and the
summers dry and cool. Snow rarely falls.
ice seldom forms, and the grass grows green
the whole year round. The mean tempera-
ture of the winter months. as shown by mete-
orlogical records, is 80 degrees. The annual
rainfall is remarkably heavy-varying from
5Oinches inland to 130 inches on the coast
and there is therefore no occasion to resort to
irrigation as in California, Arizona Utah and
the Southern Territories generally. The bene-
fetal results of this unusual humidity of the
atmosphere are seen in the fact that with
three exceptions the hay crop of the Terri
tory is the largest grown by any State or
Territory in the Union. Of the arabic lands
amounting to $4,000 square miles-four-
sevenths are heavily timbered with the most
magnificent forests ON the Continent, two
sevenths are bunch-grass prairie, and one
seventh alluvial-bottom lands. Of course
but small percentage of the whole are as
yet under cultivation, but, if we can rely
upon the agricultural reports, the fertility of
the soil is something amazing. According
to the returns for 1879, which was an unfa-
vorable crop year in that section, the average
product per acre was of wheat 24 bushels
(average for the United States 13), oats 43
(average for the United States 25), barley 80
average for the United States 22), rye IA
(average for the United States IL, buck
wheat "a average for the United States 14),
hops 1877 average for the United States
567), potatoes 152 (highest product in any
State 1927, and in only one cereal (corn) was
there deficit, the yield of that crop being
only 10 bushels to the acre as against an
average Of % bushels for the whole United
States. In volume, too, the cereal crops
grown in the Territory are surprisingly large,
the 136,937 acres under cultivation yielding
4,10s,37O bushels in 1879, while it is thought
that the wheat crop alone will this wear
amount to 100000 bushels. We have said
that the forests are the most magnificent on
the Continent. 1t may be added that they
are almost inexhaustible, the total estimated
amount of timber being 16O,OOO,OOOOOO feet,
or sufficient at the present rate Of consump-