Mexico weekly ledger., 1883-05-31
NOTES FROM A FAR.OFF COUNTRY.


S0j0urnlng Ter short Season
In Warrington Territory. -
Correspondence Of the Ledger. = =
WAITsBURa, WASHINGTON TERRrro-
BY, May 20.-I was requested by
many friends to write to them about
this country, and take this opportu-
nifty to inform them all at once. We
had very pleasant trip, stopping at
various places-among others we stop
ped about two weeks in the San Joa-
quin and Stanisland valleys in Cali
fornia. Weather pleasant there, and
the country was nearly one solid body
of wheat almost ready to cut and
looking well after the recent rains,
but they were getting very despond-
ent few weeks before. .f&s
But Of Washington Territory. The
first thing that attracts the attention
of the new conner in this section is
the hills, which is hard for an Au-
drain county prairie farmer to get
used to. One peculiar feature of the
many peculiar ones here is, that the
hilltops are as fertile as the low
lands, and raise even larger crops.
1 have talked with number of men
who have been here from fifteen tc
twenty years, and have never known
a failure. Twenty bushels to the
acre is light crop, and crops Of
l 900 acres have been known to av-
erage so bushels to the acre. The
land cultivates even easier than Au-
drain, except it is billy, and I assure
you that good farming is not the
cause of the big crops, judging from
what I see. Barley does well, and
oats but little better than with US.
Potatoes, the finest ever saw; and
most vegetables do well. One
remarkably strange thing about
the wheat is the long season
they have to put it in, which gives
one man and team a chance to put in
so large a crop. They commence
sowing in summer, fallow in Septem-
ber and keep on plowing and sowing
until the next June, with perhaps a
break of about six weeks in January
and February, when the ground
freezes. Then the wheat will stand
after it is ripe without falling down
for two months, so that they have
about the same chance to harvest
wheat that we do to harvest corn
Land in this neighborhood can be
bought from $40 to $45 per acre
owing to situation and improvements
Then men rent it for one-third o,
crop-say 10 bushels, worth from 81
cents to 81, so that you see they ge
q very good interest, besides tht
raise in the land. But just as goot
land can be bought of the railroad
company from 81 to S. close to th'
railroad, or can be homesteaded, pre-
empted or taken under timber cul
ture claim of the government.
/ But the best part is the stock bus
mess. It beats anything I ever saw
The cattle fully average with Audrain
although they do not seem to hav'
Itakens any pains to improve the stock
They are far above the Texas ant
Southwest cattle, and equal to ou
quarter and half bloods, and, although
1.-THE past winter was a very hard one
and cattle ought to have been fed
have seen thousands that are fatte
now than Audrain cattle that hav
been full corn-fed since January.
Mr.. c. T. Beeby, Of Farber, m.
brother and myself took trip acros
the country north 60 miles to Colfa
last week. This is the home TO
| horses. They paw off the snow i
: winter and eat the bunch grass, an
live better than our corn-fed horses
We rode our ponies from thirty t
fifty miles a day without bite G
grain, tying them out on the bunc
) grass, and they seemed to stand
quite well. Horses average heavier
set to the heighth than in Audrair
and are fully as good stock and i
better flesh and can stand more hare
ships. l have not seen blind hors
Ior wind-broken horse since CANT
: and they smile when I go to examir
a horses eyes. We stayed all nigl
with a horseman who owns four hui
dred head, among which are thrt
Norman mares bought this spring
r one thousand dollars, each one I
which weighs ton, and they run OF
e on the bunch grass and keep fat wi
the others. They are getting quite
number Of good stock horses here
It Norman, Clydesdale, Hamhletonial
and others. Good horses are high
there, but you can buy pony he
3, for $20 to $50. All the profit th
u can be made there on horses can
= made here with the extra addition
If all the cost of keeping them there,
l. it costs nothing here but the cal
lie But the big money is in sheep. T
L. sheep generally are one-fourth to or
:, = half merino, and are larger and bet'
and healthier than any sheep 1 e,
saw. They keep them in herds
from one to two thousand head, q
j. expect to get an increase of from
na to eight pounds Of wool from th
e iocks of ewes, and 80 or 80 per ce
y increase. The wethers, Of cour
,. shear more. Flocks after sheariI