The Republican journal., 1900-02-15

Tie writer OF the following letter is a
MuuW'e boy IIia father was Otis Tobie,
who died more than twenty years ago
His musher L. uow Mis-. G. NJ. P,ummer
ot Aa.itale THE writer it should lie
said Is in the employ OF the Northern
Pacific Railway Company.
k,oNA. WASH. Sept. Z, ls99 have
been here Il days now and like it first
rate Ot course this country is new yet
and lis resources only partly developed.
but it is the place to make money. This
is a little place On the line OF the North
eIn Pacific, 1S0 miles out of Spokane. and
is down in the sand hills and sage brush.
The published population of the place is
"A, but this is increased just now by a
gang of 81 japanese laborers, who are
working on the railroad and living in four
box cars. There would be no town here
except for the fact that the company had
to have q water tank, section gang and
operator at this point, and SO they built
depot, and since then two stores, four
dwelling houses and hotel have been
built. This is way down in what is called
the Yakima valley, and is on the south
bank Of the Yakima river, almost 100
miles above the point W here it enters into
the Columbia river. The Yakima is a
good sized stream here. 1t is all of 500
feet wide at this place, is very swift, and
is not navigable.
TO the south, and Immediately back of
the village, is a range of mountains about
500 feet high. on the top of which is a
broad plateau of thousands OF acres of
very fertile and also very dry land, called
Horse Heaven, from the fact that it used
to be great place for horse grazing until
they discovered that they could raise
wheat there; and now-weM, the immen-
sity of it cannot be described, Mr.. Kelso,
with whom ] board here in town, owns 10
sections six thousand acres of which are
in one great bic wheat field and the re-
manning 400 acres is range for the horses it
takes to work it, Nh. kelso took me up
there yesterday and | have been we'll
nigh speechless with wonder ever since |
thought / had seen enough of the world
not to be surprised at anything; but |
never saw or heard of anything to equal
the sights saw yesterday. Just think of
piece of 5000 acres in one great big
field, as level as your hand, of golden grain
They have been at work harvesting since
the first of August and are not nearly
done yet. To harvest this field they have
two combined harvesters and threshers,
drawn by 80 horses each, that cut swath
25 feet wide of standing grain and thresh
and stack it ready for market as they go
along. Each of these machines cuts and
thresbes 40 acres a day, and it takes 4 men
and 30 horses to handle them Besides these
combined machines they have what is call
ed Headers" a machine that is pushed
along by six horses and Just cuts the
heads off the wheat and loads it on to large
wagons that are drawn along parallel with
the headers, and as soon as a wagon is
loaded it is replaced by an empty one and
the lOau OF neduS is drawn TO one OF the
three stationary engines and threshers
that are at different places in the field and
threshed there.
The nearest water is II mi les away and
and all the water to supply the 3 engines,
$50 horses and about 40 men has to be
drawn that distance, and several S-horse
teams attached to large water tanks are
kept drawing water day and night. Mr..
Kelso has expended thousands of dollars
trying to get artesan water, but has not
been successful SO far, but he says he be-
heves the water is there and he will keep
at it until he gets it. If he does get water
SO that he can irrigate there will be no
limit to what he can raise. He is making
big thing of it as it is, however. The soil
n this vicinity is what is called a volcanic
lash and is very fertile and especially, so if
properly watered. In windy weather it is
apt to pile up like snow drifts. Of course
that part of it is not pleasant, but the adj
vantages of this country are more than