Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1889-10-04
Western Washington Farms.

The farms of Western Washington
are not so constructed as TO he opened
up with any great degree of facility,
nevertheless the industrious and de-
termined man can put Il few acres,
even of Il place heavily timbered, in
condition to produce fair crops the
second year. The application of in
dustry is necessary. On these few
acres it will be easily possible to raise
the equivalent OF a much larger acre
age i'll some Eastern States. Add to
this the fact that bis fuel will not need
to be purchased, nor the material for
his fences or buildings procured from
some lumber yard, and the advantages
to be derived from settlement in Wash
ington even then will not be half EMU
merated. He has sources of food sup
ply in the waters and in the forests,
game, wild fruit, (until he gets his
own fruit trees and vines to bearing),
fish, oysters, CLAIMS are at hand for his
use, he exercises his ingenuity and in
creases his healthfulness by the neces-
sary labor in that direction. Mean
time he has crop on his land which
can be turned into money by his own
labor or can be sold standing by.the
thousand feet as saw logs and the
smaller timber as piles at rates which
will enable him to push along his inn
provemcnts steadily and vigorously.
In the course of the second season il
his plans have been judicious, and
efficiently carried out he will have a
harvest of small fruit to market and
eggs and broilers to leave at some
restaurant every stated time OF visit
ing town. 1t may probably be diff
cult for him to manage to handle a
cow and make number one brand OF
butter in the earlier wears of his farm
ing, but rs soon as he gets his clover
patch fully started, his buildings in
shape and the necessary supply OF
water he can make from this source
quite an income. In three years he
will get light crop oi prunes; in
four or five years his prunes, if he has
an acre or two, will keep the necessary
household expenses going, and hi.
finances will lie easy from that time
forth, the accumulation of wealth de
pending entirely on his own efforts
and iudiciOus management, rs the
climate will unquestionably do its
duty, the soil will not be found lag
ging, neither will natural sources o
food supply fail him. How vastly
different is the recital of facts as above
from the experienced condition of mat.
ters in Kansas, Dakota and the much
doomed but terribly disappointing
Oklahoma. No natural source of sup
ply there. Only the comparatively
barren alkaline stretch Of prairie
whose water supply is almost undrink
able, and whose climate demands the
best shelter The settler on these
plains must be satisfied to expend hi:
money for every necessity, at enhanced
prices by reason of the heavy freight
rates. His lumber must be purchased
for every requirement, his fuel must
be paid for at heavy rates, and large
quantities OF it be consumed if he de
sires ordinary comfort and immunity
from the results of the climates win.
try severity. The season for harvest
when it arrives may bring him only
the bitterest disappointment. Some
pest may have forestalled him in gath
ering the crop, or storm may have
swept it away in an hours time, leav
ing him stranded and helpless. None
of this in Western Washington.