The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1902-12-30
TUESDAY. DECEMBER 80, 1902
FOURTEEN YEARS.

W I'M tHls ISSUE l HE HERALD completes
its fourteenth volume and its publishers
felicitate themselves that it is much
larger, much better and more prosper
Gus paper than ever before.
Fourteen years! 1t is not such a very
long time. Measured as time it means
but an infinitesimal fraction of drop
into the bottomless we'll of eternity.
But measured in achievement, especi-
ally in North Yakima and the great
Yakima valley, it means thousand
times more than has been accomplished
in a century and half in many in
stances in many localities. 1t means
that large section of the barren waste
once known as the Great American Des-
ert has been made to bloom and bring
forth fruit as did the Garden of Eden.
1t means that this same barrenness,
formerly only the home of the prairie
dog, the jackrabbit and the coyote, is
now thickly dotted with tree-em powered
homes, wherein dwell as prosperous,
progressive, contented class of intelligent
tillers of the soil as were ever gathered
together under the broad canopy of
heaven. 1t means that man, by intelli-
gently controlling and utilizing natures
stores of water coming from the ever
lasting peaks of eternal snow by which
this valley is surrounded-that life.giv-
ing fluid without which nothing can ex-
island by turning natures lavish
waste into channels of usefulness, has
completed here the work which nature
left unfinished and transformed a gray
sagebrush desert into one of the beauty
spots of the world has made a soil of
volcanic ashes capable of producing the
finest vegetables, the choicest fruits, the
most beautiful flowers, the most nour-
ishing grains, folders and forage plants
in the known world. 1t means that
the young fruit trees set out on the val
ley farms fourteen years ago have for
years been full-bearing orchards, and
that the countless thousands of such
trees now producing throughout the
county make the curing, canning, hand
ling and marketing of fruits gigantic
industry.
Here in the city of North Yakima it
means that little hamlet of shacks in
the midst of the sagebrush has been
metamorophosed into a thriving city of
commodious, substantial brick and
stone business blocks and comfortable,
cosy and beautiful residences with all
the modern Improvements and convent
ences. 1t means that the little slips of
bushes planted along our streets and
avenues have grown into tall, stately
and beautiful shade trees, to such an ex-
tent indeed that, looking down from any
OF the surrounding heights when the
trees are in foliage the city has more the
appearance of a well-planned, beauti-
fully laid out park than the thriving
commercial center it is.
And it means more than all this. 1t
means that fairly accurate estimate of
the future can be deduced from the past.
1t means that this wonderful develop
ment will continue, and with the con-
stanly increasing population the next
fourteen years must witness even greater
changes than have marked the last four
teen. There are yet many thousands of
acres OF undeyeloped land tributary to
North Yakima which must all come I'M
der cultivation in the near future, and
North Yakima will be the commercial
center OF the whole region. Surely the
prophetic vision peering into futurity
can see here mighty city in the midst
Of an inland empire OF surpae sing fer