Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-04-28
Letter From the Northwest.

Letter From the Northwest.
URBAN, WASH, March 81.
DEAR EAGLE Pardon this long
delay. Agriculture in Washing
ton is yet in its infancy, still the
yield is enormous according to-
acreage. Last year the wheat
crop of eastern Washington
amounted to 30,5O0, 600 bushels.
The great wheat belt includes a
part of Yakima, Kittitas, Klicki-
tat counties on the west side of
Columbia river, Douglas, Lincoln,
Spokane, Adams, Whitman,
Franklin, and Walla Walla, on
the east side. These famous
lands are peculiar volcanic for
nation that to a stranger would
appear anything but fertile and
for years were considered only fit
for grazing. Red clover, Alsike,
Alfalfa, White clover, Timothy,
Bermuda grass, Italian rye grass.
and BrooW grass, are the chief
hay products. Last year ranch
er named Albert Wright sold his
crop of Timothy for forty dollars
per acre in the stacks, but as a
rule hay is baled and sells for
about twenty dollars per ton.
After harvest the ranehers have
two months of fine weather and
it pays to bale hay.
All farming is done with the
latest improved machinery and it
is an interesting sighi to watch
the up-to-d date Washington ranch
er. His fine teams, good imple-
ments and efficient men impress
one with the Importance of farm
ing. Flowing is done almost en-
tirely by gang plows, and traction
engines are employed more or
less in the level sections for
drawing these. The rolling disc
harrows or cultivators are largely
used, as well as the most improv-
ed sorts nf toothed harrows and
cultivators. Seeding is done al
most entirely by drills. Harvest
ing is done mainly with headers
and threshers. Ordinarily three
headers and one threshing ma
chine will work together. A
days cutting and threshing fol-
such an outfit will be from fifty
to seventy-five acres. In the
wheat belt the great combined
header and thresher is employed
They cut the standing grain a
one end and drop the full sacks
OF wheat at the other, the pro.
cesses of cutting, threshing, ane
sacking being combined in on,
machine. 1t seems wonderful
that a machine can cut swat
r twenty feet wide alta round. AT
ter the crops are taken from tn,
4 fields the farmer has an cas-,
/ time. He turns his cattle int
the fields that are soon gree,
again and if a little snow or bat
e weather comes they live arount
t the straw stacks. Many herd
Y live the year round on the rang,
sheltering under the thick under
growth and feeding on nativ,
5 grasses.
3 Dairying is quite profitable ant
5 nearly all large farmers kee,
from twenty to fifty cows. Their,
is a creamery in every farming
r district and the farmer has ONLY
to milk, fill his cans, and tn,
dairyman drives by, takes thu
r milk, separates it returns the
, skinned milk and pays the far.
mer for the cream. The grade O.
butter from these creameries mus
come up to the standard prescrib.
ed by the state, consequently the
butter is first class, The increase
for the year 1901 to 1902 was 996,
432 pounds of butter and 22,8Os
pounds of cheese, thus showing
. an increase for the two years Of
2,146,573 pounds of butter and
1852 pounds of cheese. This
would indicate that the dairy
business of the state is in a
healthy condition and rapidly in
creasing, yet Notwithstanding this
increase the local consumption
famounts to more than double the
production. Hogs are profitably
raised and diseases among them
are almost unknown.
| Immense fortunes have been
made here with sheep, but pas
ture for such large flocks is be-
coming more difficult to obtain
each year and soon these i'm
mense herds will be a thing of
the past, but the farmer can al.
ways raise small herds and beiug
grain fed they bring good prices
in the market. Angora goats are
raised in great Numbers and are
more profitable than sheep.