The Princeton union., 1906-11-29

and go to Washington. The work
that I have done here ought to con-
vince them that they erred in judg-
ment. My health is as good and I
feel as able to work as I did forty
years ago, and it has been greatly
to my advantage to come here.
We are having our season of rain
and we are we'll supplied with water,
but the weather is not as disagreeable
as the cold and snow of Minnesota.
The crops of both grain and fruit in
Washington have been very good this
year, the fruit crop in some parts of
the state being enormous, especially
where the lands is irrigated. The
weather for the year now drawing to a
close has been rather unusual, The
rainy season closed February first and
then it was warm and dry until May
with one exception of one week in
March, called the cold week, when it
was cold enough to injure some kinds
of fruit buds-even Strawberries in
some localities. May was a very wet
month-it was unusually wet. We
also had several heavy thunder
showers, a thing almost unheard of
and rather shocking to the nerves of
the natives. 1t was, however, very
pleasing to Minnesotans. After the
May rains the weather was delightful,
with a very small amount of precipi-
tation until the commencement of the
rainy season in September. The rain
was very gentle at first but increased
from week to week until by November
we have what they call downpour.
Old residents will tell you that the
temperature is very uniform, that there
are no hot days and that the nights
are cool. What is said of the nights
is true. They are cool-there are no
hot nights and there are neither feas
nor mosquitoes to disturb the sleeper.
During my lifetime of over 80 years I
have never been in any part of the
country between the Atlantic and the
Pacific where the people were blessed
with such restful nights as in Wash
ington. I have been informed that the
temperature in the warmest weather is
between 10 and 80, seldom as high as
80, but we had several very hot days
last summer, the thermometer register
ing 96, SO and 102. This I suppose is
another of the unusuals of this year.
Many of my Minnesota friends are
anxious to know how I like the rainy
season. I will relieve their anxiety
by giving my opinion through the
U in on, but I will preface that opin-
ion by saying that I did not come to
Washington expecting to find an
Eldorado, an oasis or the garden of
Eden. There are some objections to
all parts of the world. To some peo-
pie the rainy season in Washington is
very Objectionable, but to me it is no
more so than the wet seasons and
cold and snowy winters in Mime
sofa. To day is the 18th of No
vember and we have had only one
very light frost, not severe enough tp
injure the most tender plants. Many
varieties of flowers are now blossom
ing, roses will keep in bloom till mid
winter, and it is not an unusual thing
to get two crops Of Strawberries from
the same bed in one season. The
Bartlett pear tree also often bears the
second crop. The second crop is on
the new growth and is about two
months later than the first. The fruit
is small, but otherwise as good as
the first crop. It would be difficult to
convince me of the truthfulness of this
second crop statement if [ had not
been an eye witness.
S. 3. Smith,
BremertOn, Wash.