The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1902-10-31
What II Dakota Emixrant
Thinks of Washington

The following communication
we have received from Mrs. !
S. Campbell, who recently re
moved from Marvin in this coun
ty to make her home in Washing
ton:
Washington is state of great pos
sibilities if it only had few more
energetic citizens with a little capital
FIRST, this, the southern part of the
state, is no stock country, as they
have no rain during the summer
months, and pastures, unless irrigated
are as dry and brown as possible: the
native grass is short and thin, and
will die out unless irrigated, there is
plenty of good soft water for all irri.
eating purposes but it will take time
and money to pipe it. Two thirds OF
the people live from hand to mouth.
going up to the Y ackima in the fall to
pick hops and coming back contented
to wait until another fall to earn next
years living: the buildings are not as
good as in Dakota; here in sight OF
saw mills people are contented to live
in buildings that would drive a
Dakotian wild, although there are
some fine buildings owned mostly by
people that have come here lately.
Lumber is cheap: dimenson stuff be-
ing Sc, common lumber S6 to SO, up
to the finest finishing lumber from SlS
to $40 per thousand, this is the country
to find nice lumber: the timber is
mostly pine with some oak and poplar:
there is as much prairie as timber.
The soil in the timber is sandy, most
of the prairie is black and on the
bench lands along the Columbia a
fine black loan; while near the river
it is all sand: but is all alike, very
productive if irriga ated. Some of the
finest peaches and grapes we ever saw
were growing in clear sand. All
kinds of fruit and garden stuff are
simply wonderful if properly irri-
gated, the seasons being so long
they have plenty of time to mature,
the only wonder is that there is not
more raised. A 20 acre "ranch" of
irrigated land is worth as much as
half section dry land. We saw 10
acre field of alfalfa on the Columbia
bench land they were cutting for the
fourth time this season, and several
head of cattle had pastured on it all
besides, and at this cutting
was up to their knees, it looked odd
to see cattle picking and mowers going
in the same field. They raise immense
crops of wheat without irrigation.
acre: below 80 is considered a poor
crop. Farming is completely turned
around here as they plow in the spring
and seed in the fall, some of the grain
is fast coming up now. Wheat is
worth from 81 to.56 cents per bushel
now, -four, the best is $l.5O per hun
lred. Hay is high and scarce, cattle
are high, at a sale last week calf
sold for S15, two year old heifer
$40, and another for $40, and a cow
vas bid in for $50. Butter is from
Is to 30 cents per pound. In driving
by ''ranch" here you generally see
about 3 head of cattle, some hogs.
and about dozen horses, all rolling
tat, and you can't possibly see what
they live on, the horses range from
to IA hundred and are cheap and
plentiful, the teamsters generally drive
six horses, and most of them have
bells. Wagons and buggies are high,
they do not use harvesters, as they
can head, stack and thresh their grain
drop of rain. The country
generally is more rolling here than
in Dakota, althCug there are some
level farms either prairie or timber.
The roads are very hard, more like
pavement than dirt and the horses all
have to be shod; at present the roads
are very dusty. The air is clear and
pure, you can both see and hear a
long distance. Mt. Adams, 40 miles
away, does not seem over 5 miles, and
we can hear blasting on the new rail
road 20 miles away. The farms are
all fenced, ''and such fences" in
driving five miles you can see every
kind of fence, from log to a woven
wire. You cannot buy any thing by
the bushel, it is all pounds. At
Spokane we wanted peck Of apples.
but the dealer didn't know how much
a peck was, so we had to be contented
with pounds. Peaches are worth l
and 2 cents per pound; plums, prunes,
pears, grapes and apples l cent, to-
matoes cent, and onions 1t cents per
pound. The winters here are short,
with no wind and not much cold
mercury seldom going below
~ DolOW zero, anu tudt only IOF q
short time; they have considerable
wind in the spring and summer but
not as much or as hard as in Dakota.
Land is worth from 81 to $40 per
acre, according to location and i'm
provements. Land is raising fast on
account of the new railroad: there are
a few timber claims left yet but they
are going fast. We intended to take
a timber claim here, but since being
here and looking the country over
have decided to either get us an irri-
gated farm or go over the Cascades
where there is more rain and better
stock country.
MRS. j. S. CAMPBELL.
Klickitat Co. Block House, Wash.