St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-06
AMONG BONANZA FARMS.
OUR CORRESPONDENT CHARMED WITH
WASHINGTON STATE.
ITS MANY TEMPERATURES.

mates or Hndson's Bay, the
Lower Lake Region and South
ern Tennessee = Republicans,
Populists and Coxeyites for
Paternalism.
Special Correspondence OF the Globe.
NORTH YAKIMA. WASH, April 3d.
think have said that Washington is a
state OF wonderful contrasts, and. il l
haven't said it, l wish to drop that re.
mark right now. You will also conclude
that 1t is state OF magnificent distances
when you look of to a range OF mount
ANTS. apparently an hours brisk
gallop off. and are told that they
are fifty or seventy-fve miles off.
Mount Adams, with its snow cap oil.
looks from my car window as if just
over the foot hills, and it is a good
seventy miles away. But Its contrasts
are the most impressive to the man
from the East, where nature Is more
orthodox. We crossed the high table
lands = though why these waves
of land are called "tables" passes
me = the other day by wagon ;
and it was Winona wagon, by the way,
that carried me from Davenport, on the
line from Spokane to Coulee City, to
Sprague, on the main line, some thirty
five miles. tits a region of extensive
farming-expansive is the better word.
Our driver pointed out ranch after
ranch of from two to ten sections of
land, all sown or being sown in wheat.
and his tone plainly showed that these
enormous farms were the pride of the
country.
A nights ride carries one into as COM
plete contrast as can be found else
where only in days of riding on long
titudiual lines. The great farms of the
plateau shrivel to the ten or twenty
acre farm of the Yakima. There ex-
pansiye farming; here intensive farm
ing; there man to the mile; here
thirty to fifty; there wheat and apples
here grapes. pears, plums, peaches
apples. hops, alfalfa; there the climate
OF the lower lake region; here that of
Southern Tennessee. But it is not nec-
essary to ride night in car to get
this contrast. Within sight of the car,
fifteen or twenty miles away, is a range
OF hills on which the snow yet lies in
great patches. A ranchman tells me
that up tn ere the spring work is not yet
begun. and frost is yet in the land,
while here the pillow could have run
any time for the past two months. 1t
Is this intensive farming of the valley /;
this sufficient productiveness of few
acres under irrigation to give sup port
to family, that makes the future rich
with promises of prosperity. 1t rids the
problem of country life of its horror of
solitude, and makes possible that ideal
of village farm life, where peighbors
are close.
/ had read the pamphlet descriptive OF
the valley and It's canals, issued by the
Northern Pacific company. l had read
it with that "bear" feeling, that indul-
gent incredulity, grown from compare
sons of the real in the Dakotas with
Pat Domains gorgeous ideal s. resulting
in conviction that a liberal disco mt
must be made from the state ments
of these promoters of the settlements of
the wild and woolly West. L have spent
two days in a wagon ride down the
Yakima valley; have seen in the sage
brush desert above the irri eating canal,
with its arid, thirsty soils, so loosely
laid that a breeze that sweeps down
from the ranges picks up a load OF
dust and carries 1t in Whirling spiraIs
through the air. and I have turned to
see on the other side of the canal orch
ards OF apple and peach and plum and
pears; fields of hops and alfalfa and
clover. and long lines of grape trelllses,
and it is hard to realI re that seven OF
eight years ago these lands were
covered with the sage, and were arid
and sterile as the land above the ditch.
l shan't attempt description; any
one caring to learn of the country and
its possibilities can get it in the pamph-
let which the company will supply on
application. The descriptions are not
overlaid with a color that will fade
rapidly under actual inspection of the
reality. There are discomforts, of course.
All pioneer life has them in more or
less OF plenty, but these here are no
greater than those of other coun-
tries. The dust is annoying until the
land is laid in grasses. and one has to
dig down through the eighty feet of
soil to get water for house use, but the
rewards that come to pluck and industry
and perseverance amply compensate for
what there is of discomfort in the first
years of opening.
1--we got 400 head of horses up there
on the range" said rancher to me at
Midtown. We're just finishing the
spring roundup. Worth? They amt
worth nothin'. l can't give 'em
away. The horse business is over
done. sold that caYuse over
there for $50. and three years
ago could a. got seventy for her any
day. the business is just overdone.
An sheep amt worth anything.
They're overdone, too. / am down now
after shearers; got to shear if the wool
isn't worth nothin'. l pay five cents
head for shearing and get eight cents
for my wool. No. it doesn't cost much for
keep; have to put up some hay for the
winter, but the sheep range the hills
most the year. Why don't l 20 into
fruit farming? Why, that's going to be
overdone. too. Why, just look at this
valley, and calculate what it will yield