Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-10-02
FERTILE CANVAS PRAIRIE.
Mammoth Products of the Soil
a Magnificent Harcest. dnd
the Necessity of Direct
railroad Connection.

Va
July grafton delivered here,
alluded in a humorous spirit
to the products of Camas Prai-
RE, specifying among other
things that we grew potatoes as
big as beer barrels, and that it
was hardly a figure of speech
to say that we could raise fifty
bushels of wheat on an acre
of plank sidewalk, etc. These
remarks afforded much amuse-
ment at the time as an exercise
of the imaginative faculty, and
for long, long time it was a
standing joke on the unfortu-
nate editor-orator. But "time
at last makes all things even"
and the experience of the pre-
sent year demonstrates that in
those remarks there was nei-
Their Imagination nor cxaggera-
ton, but that they were SIM
ply an illustration of the enor-
nous productive possibilities
of our soil when intelligently
cultivated.
These remarks are melted
by a view of the products of
our soil which have been ex-
hibited in Grangeville for the
past few days. Indeed, the
printing office has of late look.
ed like the agricultural part of
a county fair, with its display
of enormous vegetables and
fruits. First of all, and fore
most of all, is the mammoth
pumpkin raised upon the farm
of Benz. Delmage, near White
Bird creek, which is verita
BILE world beaten for size and
weight. This pumpkin is a
volunteer growth, name and
variety unknown. 1t measures
more than eight feet in circum-
ference,and weighs an even 100
pounds. 1t is as firm and
sound as new dollar, and
does not show any evidence
that it is an overgrowth or a
monstrosity. Mr.. Delmage
brought it to town last Friday
and made a house to house
tour with it for the benefit of
the ladies and children. Humid
reds of people, representing
every state in the Union, have
since seen it, and all unite in
declaring it to be the largest
pumpkin they had ever seen or
heard of. Mr.. Hanson took a
photograf of it, and in due
time we'll have an electrotype
made from the picture and
publish it in the F. P. as an
ILLUSTRATION of the fertility of
our soil. This remarkable veg
etable prodigy was purchased
by Jas. Edwards, of the Jer-
sey House, whose boarders are
always fed on the fat ofthe land
But our big pumpkin, of
which we are so justly proud,
is only one item in a long list
OF products Of our farms and
gardens which would take first
prizes at any State Fair in
America. Among other in
instances O.B.Howard brought
us from his White Bird ranch,
a cabbage of such size that we
had to take it home in wheel
barrow? The same gentleman
raised onions of the Silver
King variety which attained a
growth as large as the editorial
head. The potatoes this year
seem to run more to length,
so that while not as bulky as
beer barrels, they can be stack
ed up and carried in the arms
like an armful of stove wood.
We have volunteer potato,
raised by G. r Chase, seven
miles north west of Grange
vile, which weighed A lbs.
In the line Of fruits we have
plums grown by Mesrs. Behean
and Crooks and others, close
to town, which weigh five to a
pound. Prunes weighing three
to pound have been gathered
from trees growing on residence
lots in this town, while the
crop Of other fruits is alike
prodigious in size and quanti-
ty, and of unexceptionable fla
yor. The cereal crops are