Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1889-12-27
{ At Large in Washington.

At Large in Washington.
i ~ WilATcoM, Wash. Dec. 20, 1889.
I To the Editor: l have been here but
4 few DAYS, but have seen much; and
fbeentold more. Istopped one day ut
| Ellensburg, and saw most Of what can
| be seen from the railroad cars Between
that point and Spokane. l got off the
train At every point that there was time
and Lean say that for agricultural pur-
poses eastern Washington will be a
severe disappointment for every Mlnne-
sofa farmer that should try it, There
can be no successful farming, as we Of
Minnesota unde stand the term, with.
out irrigation. There are some few
favorable localities throughout. eastern
Washington where good crops:are now
raised without an artificial supply Of
water, int they have been mostly found
and taken. The Kittitos valley. which
lies around Ellensburg is irrigated and
the results are simply wonderful, and
also the taxes which the irrigation com-
panies. put upon the farmer to pay for
the water. One large farmer on the
train told me that the interest on the
bonus he paid to induce irrig ,tion COM
panies to take hold and the annual rent
al amounted to Is bushels per acre per
year us an average, and other crops
prouortionately, but on the other hand
the crop is astounding. The crop thus
irrigated is uniform year after year and
is never less than AZ bushels, and has
reache d s., with the result of growing
better each succeeding year. The soil
is disintegrated lava, from ancient vol
canic eruptions, and cultivation increas
es the amount and the quality of the
| soil every year without dressing Of any
kind, but it seems to me that without
governmental supervision, national or
state, there will be many inequalities
and exactions in the use of the water as
the state grows. Those that claim to
know say that the supply Of water from
surface and subterranean Sources oh
tanned by artesian wells, is sufficient for
as dense q population as now is in Ili-
nois. The price OF wheat here is con-
troIled by the price at Duluth because
small surplus is shipped east; put it
looks to me that the development of the
mining and lumber interests, as well us
shipping from the coast, will make
home market eventually.
North Yakima, ElIensburg and Spo-
kane are wonderfully prosperous towns.
Everything is cash. These towns de-
pend upon mining and numbering in
terests as the bed rock OF their success.
Agriculture is only incidental.
When arriving near the tunnel Of the
Cascade noun aims we were something
like i 400 feet above the sea le vel, was
told, and were in the midst of cold
and bitter snow storm. An honr later
We rode down the slope of the western
side of the mountaiadFith warm wind
in a gentle rain, with tall timber, green
grass, and a decided May fell to the
atmosphere, into the city. The sun
shone, the mud was piled up cord to
the square yard, and flowers Of all kinds
blooming beautifully in al! we'll kept
down yards. The whole climate had
changed in one hour.
Eastern Washington here comprises |
all between the Cascades and the Rock
les, about two-thirds of tho state. The |
people of the state are superior in intel
ligence, law-abiding and thoroughly in
earnest about their state. 1t looks as if |
nothing but rustlers ever came out here.
The business men are almost wholly
young men with d great deal of get up
and gew about them.
am writing is at Whatcom, in the
Northwest part of the state Oh the
Sound" The cost Of living here is on
the whole abont the same rs in Mnnc-
sofa. Ii it varys at ut all it is below.
Some things are high, others low, to my
Minnesola notlons. For Instance, kero.
sene is IS cents per gallon, butter IL
cents per pound, eggs 4u cents per doZ !
EN-, milk, 10 cents, salmon and trout, 10 !
cents per pound, while sc.k tisn is sold
by the pieces or fist, AMI. Is about 3 |
cents, or You eau catch all you Want !
Yourself anywhere. Flour, auoat 500
per hundred; house rcu1s uudrrstc; /
wood, just exactly exactly the price .!
the LABOR to get 1t, which any Que can !
do even around Tacoma! freely. The |
wood on city lots around any of the !;
Sound cities is SO plentiful that after the !
saw wood is taken, it is free to every !
one. In this warm climate the refuse |
wood of one 6r tree would last family
II year Or more, and there are ten trees
like that on the same land that supports
one IN Morrison county.
Carpenters all over the Sound towns
get from $3.50 to $3.50 per day; plas-
.terers, S per day; brick layers from IS
to IS per day, and all can work every
day in the year. All out door work is
now going on, although there is u drz-
zlin 6 rain at Leaf half Of every day.
This part Of the state has all the rain
~ HNAAlSs dAu SOuIc over. 1Nc SOH ~
rich and the rcsul,sure enormous crops
Of. everything that grows in temperate
climates. Tie country has much waste
land Through the presence of the noun.
tains and steep hills. Farm products
sell eheaply and find at present markets
III the growing cities of The Sound, but
crops being one-Lalf larger than in
Minnesota, farmers are doing we'll here,
this western side of the Cascades. \
decent breakfast is furnished anywhere
on the Sound for Is cents ami II tip top
dinner iurSS'225 cents. The variety OF
food here Is simply huge. Sea food,
tropical food and temperate zone food,
all OF the best quality, is abundant and
cheap. Iwillwrite more later.
- III s1sslx5s : f. II. FARNHAM.
.#5. .# Wanted.
The Ladies' Home at the Normal