Evening star., 1909-09-11
RICH WHEAT DISTRICT
Long Continued Fertility of the
UmatiIIa Valley.
"DRY FARMING" EMPLOYED
Fifty Thousand Acres Allotted in
Severalty to Indians.
CARLISLE STUDENTS RELAPSE
Young Men and Women Educated
in the East Fall Back Into the
Aboriginal Habits Of Life.
CARLISLE STUDENTS RELAPSE
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
| Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald

BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
PENDLETON. Ore, September ?. 1902.
From La Grande Ronde we took rail-
way train over the O. r. and y. line
to a station called Meacham. where there
is lumber camp, and there Mr.. H. >.
Gwin. secretary of the Commercial Clup
of Pendleton, met us with his auto
mobile and took us across the Blue
Mountains over the overland trail, which
was followed by emigrants from the early
sixties until the railway was built You
may have seen or heard of Ezra Meeker,
patriarchal-looking individual with a
long white beard. who, last spring. with
his wife and daughter, Travelled from
Oregon to the District of Columbia. and
then, via Philadelphia and New York. to
New England, in a prairie schooner.
drawn by yoke of oxen. They lived in
the wagon en- route precisely as Ezra
Meekers father and mother lived when
they followed the trail to Oregon when
he, a mere boy. drove the oxen most of
the way. Meeker's recent journey was
to identify and mark the trail, in order
that 1t might not be forgotten, because
there have already been disputes con-
corning localities. He paid his expenses
pS SciHHS poohS dHu pilotosI dpHS VI
self and his critters and performed an
important duty to history.
The earliest immigrants. including
Lewis and Clark. followed the Missouri
river from Independence. Mo-. and crossed
Montana. Marcus Whitman and the 800
'fifty-four. forty or fight" Americans
who went with him in lS47 followed the
Laramie trail and then came up this
way to Walla Walla- The stage route
kept the California trail for protection
n "tnnap0ncko frtvy, ,od
north through the Raft river country
and followed the Snake river to its juno
ton with the Columbia. where the
passengers took boats for Portland. In
portant town in Oregon. and had a
population of four or five thousand. 1t
was the supply point for all this part
OF the country, but today 1t is only a
division point on the railroad, with a
few hundred population.
Overlooking the Umatilla Valley.
The trail We followed over the Blue
mountains led us through the We-na-ha
forest reserve. which is like park, COW
cred with splendid frs. pines and cedar
trees. and it was the most delightful
morning ride you could imagine After
leaving the forest the trail comes out
into high. open plateau. from which
the eye can traverse the country for
seventy-five or eighty miles in every di-
rectton. On one side is a series of velvet
hills, seal brown in color. wounded by
water and wind in ages past so severely
that the scars remain upon the mountain
side. On the other hand there is a grand
view of the Umatilla valley, where 36O, 600
acres of wheat had been harvested a few
days before-one OF the greatest sights
that can be seen anywhere.
The Umatilla valley is part of the great
plain of the Columbia, in eastern Oregon.
Of lava. varying from 20OO to 1900 feet
in thickness. and then covered by an i'm
mense fall Of volcanic ashes. This made
it one OF the most fertile areas on the
American continent. and we were told
that 1 per cent of all the wheat crop of
the United States and 33 per cent of the
crop of the state of Oregon are harvested
annually from the land that lay around
us like pale yellow sheet. These $780,
600 acres in 1903 produced 100000
four and one-half million dollars. and,
although the land has been steadily
cropped for nearly forty years. it still
produces an average Of thirty-four bushels
to the acre.
This splendid valley was once the prop
erty of the Umatilla Indians. but in a real
estate transaction with the government
it passed out of their hands more than
forty years ago, with the exception of
about $4,000 acres. which was allotted in
and the Walla Walla tribes. numbering
altogether about LOO people. The head
of each family was given 16O acres;
others over fourteen received eighty
acres; under fourteen forty acres. They
cannot sell the land. but they can lease
it under the supervision of the Indian
agent. and it is nearly all taken up in
that way by white people at rentals
varying from So to Sc an acre.
Cultivated by "Dry Farming"
These Oregon wheat lands are not irri-
gated, but have been cultivated since the
sixties after the same methods that are
now called dry farming''-that is, by
thorough plowing and narrowing until the
surface soil is pulverized every year, and
planting the crop only every other year
The precipitation In this section will aver
age sixteen inches. and very regular
Most of the rain falls in the spring and
early summer. The tracts that are plant
ed and those that are left falIow are ir-
regular and are scattered helter- -skelter
over the valley SO that the patches of
brown where the soil shows and the
patches of straw color where the wheat
has been harvested lie side by side, in odd
shapes, furnishing a striking contrast.
There is not a tree or an object of any
kind except a fringe Of foliage which
ms OF the Indians are scattered along its
banks. They do not spend much time on
the reservation during the summer. but go
on into the mountains, and come back in
the fall. when the snow flies. and pitch
their tepees alongside their houses. They
prefer to live In them, and when the
weather gets cold they often stable their
ponies in the houses that the government
has built for them. Only a few of the In
dian families have ever taken up perma-
nent residences in the cabins upon their
allotment, and very few cultivate their
own farms. They prefer to lease them to
white farmers and the rentals they re-
ceive when added to their annuity money
are sufficient to support them
The Indian agency occupies an entire
section of land. The offices, warehouses,
two Industrial schoolhouses. attended by
about $50 children; the quarters of the
agency staff and other buildings make
up quite little settlement, under the
supervision Of Maj. E: S. Swaziland.
from Minnesota, who was formerly chief
clerk at the klamath Falls agency
The Indians receive their money
through the agent semi-annually. He
pays the cash over promptly to adults
who in his Judgment are competent to re-
ceive 1t, but the ''jncompetents," the reck-
less, Incorporate and gambling Indians,
who are not fit to look after their own
money, are given orders upon the store
att the agency .or clothing. flour. sugar
and coffee according to the judgment of
the agent. Very few of the Indians save
anything. They are the aristocrats OF
Umatilla county: 1.-THE leisure class" per-