The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-08-24

zoo mead oI great, big Hereford and
Sncrthorn beef cattle-and to feed and
fatten these for market is of itself a
tremendous undertaking.
But the most remarkable feature of
this intensive and extensive farming is
the reclamation of hundreds of thous-
ands of acres of fertile land in the Big
Bend country that five years ago was a
bowling wilderness-the home of the
jack rabbit and the coyote, people only
by intermittent Indians and an Occa
stray bands of cattle: Here once was
one Of the finest grazing countries in
almost waist high in the spring and
yeef cattle fattened on it, netting the
herdsmen immense profits. Then came
he sheep men and with them a clash
If interest that ended in bloody feuds
which gradually found a setting in the
upper regions of the Okanogan. Here
he war for the range between the
attic men and the sheep men still
ages and last spring one band of 1906
head of sheep was slaughtered in the
night by owners of cattle. The sheep
'un the range-they have made bar
en- miles upon miles of country that
vas once Veritable paradise fol
.tUckmen But the land was wild an6
rec to the strongest who came to en-
Joy it. Gradually the sheep men forced
he cattle owners back into the hills
or summer feeding. Rolling hills be-
anne brown in the spring where once
he bunch grass fiourished, until the
light between cattle men and sheep
owners took the form of bloody fight
ng in the mountain passes and in
legislative conflicts at Olympia over
laws designed to put sheep owners off
the free range.
Only the Indian.
Five years ago one could stand on an
eminence and look thirty miles in any
direction without seeing either human
habitation or human being, outside of
an occasional Indian travelling by cay
use through the country. Mr.. Benson
says that there was an area north and
east of Trinidad, thirty miles square
or consisting of 900 square miles. in
which there were not a half dozen
ship after township from the Northern
Pacific railway company. This was
had placed on the market the bulk of
its imperial land grant-every alternate
on each side of the railroad track. Here
was, indeed, a mighty empire of virgin
ldllu, llIutil VI w lllCI W dS Sol,l ny lIlc
land department at very low prices on
orders from the management, whose
ness and reduce the land assets to cash
for betterments and Improvements
Land went township at a time-23,OO0
acres at clip-at far less money than
the government asked for hOmesteads
and prescriptions. Where, five or six
years ago. these 900 square miles lay
uninhabited, there are now wheat
ranches in great numbers, consisting
of tracts of 800 and $40 acres, which
are yearly adding to the worlds store
of grain. 1t was believed that this
land was good for nothing save graz
ing-that because of the great heat
and summer drouths it was impossible
to raise cereal crops successfully.
First Homeseekers Come.
Following the Benson invasion came
the first homeseekers of 1899 and 1900
when cOlOniSt rates on the Northern
lines lower in point of price than ever
before in the history of northwest rail
rOading-brOught thousands of we'll
TODD farmers from the Central West
eager to escape the rigors of winter
in Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebras-
ka and the DakOtas.
The first settlers found it hard sled
ding-breaking the raw land was nc
trick, but the first crops were we'll
nign failures. Then the discovery was
made that cultivation of the soil in
| creased its yielding capacity-increaseG
the storage of moisture in the loan
and the second and third crops We're
better. AS wheat went up, the early
settlers found themselves on velvet
| in many places and today land thai
could have been purchased in 1898 anC
| 1899 for $3.50 an acre is now worth
SIS to $40, and yielding crops of twenty