The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-08-15

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a land-locked harbor for booming logs
and plenty of tide flats admirably adap-
ted for mill sites. Blaine already has
two large mills and ten single mills.
The annual output of the Blaine mills
is something like 100000 feet of lum-
Der and 100000 shingles, besides
lath and boxes.
There are four large salmon can
neries at Blaine. Between eighty and
one hundred fish traps are operated
from Blaine. There are extensive oys- |
ter beds almost within the city limits
where the famous Drayton Harbor oys- |
ter is grown, and other beds in the har-
Dor at Mud Bay, B. G. The shipment
of fresh fish and crabs from this point
are also important industries.
Then comes farming, which may be
styled the infant industry, and allied
industries. The land when cleared
will all produce and responds wonder
fully to care, tillage and treatment.
Most of it can be greatly improved by
fertilization. The soil varies greatly
in composition, and the surface in slope
and elevation. Therefore the products
of the soil are many and diverse.
Among the crops which yield good re-
turns are apples of all kinds, a partic-
ularly remunerative crop, pears, cher
ries, ounces, plums, peaches, straw
berries, raspberries, blackberries, Lo-
ganberries, almost all varieties OF veg
etables, walnuts, hay, hops, chicken
wheat, which yields forty bushels to
the acre, and sells for 65 cents a bush
ell, oats, and other grains. 1t is a
great country for stock, swine, sheep,
chickens, turkeys, ducks. Eggs, but
ter, poultry, beef, pork and mutton
always bring price far above the Chi
cago market.
The roads of Whatcom County are
one indication to the wealth OF the
lands. The county has now six hun
dred miles of good public roads which
have been built at a cost exceeding 30
900 a mile or, in other words, in it's
roads Whatcom County has an asset OF
approximately two millions of dollars.
Along these roads throughout the coun-
try runs a complete system OF tele-
phones, and every farmer can have
one in his house at a nominal cost OF
fifty cents a month, if he is stock
holder in the company, of which the
cost is something like forty dollars,
all told. The county also has an excel
lent system of rural schools.
When the timber has been removed
from the land the huge stumps and
tangled mass of fallen trees and small
growth presents a discouraging pros
pect to the contemplating settler Yet
Just such wild land as may be found
near Blaine, on Vashon Island near
Tacoma, sells for $500 an acre; in Sno-
homish and Skagit county no better
land will bring SIS and 500, and even
in Whatcom County near Bellingham
and Lynden the wild land is held at
these figures. The land is worth the
money, but these values have not yet
obtained at Blaine. Wild land here
can yet be had for from $40 to $50 an
acre. and some tracts off the road have
sold for even less in the last year.
There is, however, each year marked
increase in the demand for and price
of farm lands, both wild and improved.
While the cost of clearing has been
reckoned from $50 to $500 an acre ac-
cording to the nature OF the timber
growth, yet in the counties farther
south where greater progress has been
made by the use of donkey engines, it
is said that the cost of clearing can be
reduced over one-half. Improved land
in Whatcom County varies from $75
to $500 an acre, owing to quality OF
land, improvements, and location.
One of the things which will make
Blaine a city of considerable import
ance is the work of the Great Northern
Railway here. The Great Northern
has in the past three months expended
nearly million dollars in the city pre-
pairing yards, warehouse, stations, and
approaches A ferry is to be operated
from Blaine to Victoria, B. c., and the
ground is already excavated for a
twelve stall roundhouse and machine
chnr,c Tho road has deem water shin |