St. Paul daily globe., 1894-04-30


villages wearing thriving air. but
whose growth and possibilities must be
greatly lessened by the land hunger
which has made farms average 240 acres
in size, With many embracing a section.
Wheat is the reliance, with oats as tue
next crop. while barley yields well, and.
ewing to the rainless harvests, retains
its color. The country is 1000 feet
above sea level and the sheitering
ranges of mountains give it a climate
whose mean temperature is that of
southern Ohio. Settlement stops where
the great table land bu,ts up against
the Nez Perces reservation in Idaho.
The Northern Pacific has an extension
of its road graded from Jul.ette to this
place awaiting favorable monetary con-
diti0ns for completion. A bill is pend
ing fer the opening of this reservation,
which will throw open to settlement
$4,000 acres of land similar in character
to this Pal0use region. This will be
limited TO homesteads. and it offers to
homeseekers vastly better advantages,
both of soil and climate, than the Da-
kotas offered. Orchards of apples are
in bearing OH most OF these farms.
81 am going to show you scenery that
is worth trip across the continent to
see," said E. Y. Smalley. as when. after
leaving the car at Cniontown for this
place in carriages sent by the citizens
here 10 meet us, we approached the
banks of the Snake where it forms
its junction with the Clearwater.
Our appetites for scenery had been
somewhat palled by surfeit of it which
we have had for several days. and his
remark elected little interest. But
when turn in the road brought US to
the brow of the mountainous mills which
line the north bank of the rivers, we
looked out on scene which called out
raDturous remarks from the entire
party. Words cannot describe its beauty,
and the photographs taken by the local
artist are but pale and inefficient repre-
SentatiyeS of the actual. Below us,
down the sides Of the hill, 1000 feet
below, looking like silver ribbons. were
the Clearwater coming from the east
and the Snake from the south, with
Lewiston, twenty-five miles away, look
ing like q toy village clustered about
their juncture. Away TO the left were
the Craig mountains circling to the
south and west with timber to their
tops. Beyond them. forty miles away,
and south of the gorge where the Snake
breaks the range are the Alpowa noun
tains, ranging westward, where they
meet the Blue mountains, which bear
away west. their SDOw tops glisteniEg
in the afternoon sun, to send their melt
ing SHOWS down into the fertile valley
of Tie Waila Walia. Between the rivers
and the mountains the benches, covered
with green grass, rose step by step until
they rested against the sides of the
mountains. The green carpet was striped
with the shadows thrown by the declin-
lug sun on the western banks of the
gull!eS which cut the benches in all
directions.
We swept around the curve in the
road at the crest at the foot OF a line
of basaltic rock which crowns
and lines the top OF the range, giving it
the semblance of an old fortficati0n,
raised against some ancient southern
foe, but now rendered needless by uni
verSal peace. Turning the eye down
the precipitous slope of the hills, it gives
leery feeling to one unaccustomed TO
such heights, and one wonders at the
n0nchalaucc OF the driver, who scarcely
tlghtens the reins on the horses which
are going down the grade along the mar
row road. skirting cliffs whose depths
are suggestive of awful possibilities
should anything give way. Back and
IL II,
Ing back. which makes one grip the seat
tighter and hold ones breath, we 90
rattling down these five miles of road
required to cover the 2,2O0 feet of actual
descent.
In going down 1900 feet we have ira
yersed several degrees Of longitude.
In half an hour we have gone from
Idaho to Kentucky. On the hills we
left grain. the winter wheat, two or
three inches high, here we found it two
feet high; there we left the spring seed
ing going Oh on the dryer lands, here
we found the spring grain growing:
there we left the apple trees just taking
OH that preliminary shade of green pre-
ceding the bossoming. here we found
the apple trees and pear trees in bloom,
with the peach trees already setting
their fruit; there the gardens were be-
ing planted, here their earlier produce
was already on the tables; there snow
fingered in the hillsides where the sun
shine fell lightly. here the mercury
Climbed to eighty today. Up on the
tops the winter SHOWS fell to a depth Of
one and two feet. and the mercury
touches twenty below; here snow is a
rarity. and for two months of midwinter
the weather may reach zero. doubt if
the world can show so sharp contrast
Of long stretch of upland agricultural
country cut across by a sub-lropical
"man' putting ice into the water cooler,
and the cakes did not exceed two inches
in thickness, one of those little facts
that went long way towards corrobor-
atlng the statements of the citizens as
to their winters.
The uplands of the Palouse need no
irrigation, the rainfall being sufficient.
Here in the valley and to the south on
the benches, crops are raised without
irrigation, but with water the yield
would be greatly increased. We were
driven twenty miles over these benches.
great undulating stretches covered
with gram fields of the native grasses.
and fed on by the droves of cattle
looking sleek and fat A grass called
aihlerarilla has come in from Mexico
and furnished luXuriant and Succu-
lent forage plant. Its seed is contained
in sharp thorn-like pod which, under
moisture, twists itself into spiral and
rotating. bGres its way into the ground.
illustrating another of the wonderful
provisions of nature for perpetuatlng
the species.
Away 10 the south, around the base of
the Craig mountains and south of them,
lies another great prairie, the Camas, as
fertile as this, now given to raising cat
tie because of the long haul making
grain raising too costly. We met a
trainload of their cattle OH the way here
looking as fat as if stall-fed. Land in the
Paiouse is held from $50 to $50 an acre !:
in the valley proper it is held from Sl0O