The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1909-05-07
MUCH DAMAGE DONE
Among the Ranches and Or
chards of This
County.
EFFECT Of A HARD WINTER
An Experience That May Not o.
cur Again Within
Generation.

Carl Hamilton, who is acting as dep
uty assessor, and in that capacity has
travelled over great deaPof territory
north of Riverside and west of the Ok
anogan river, gives rather a gloomy
report of the condition Of the farming
community, resultant of the severe
winter. The rancher is surely up
against hard game, and the new set
tier must have nerve and staying quail
tiles to get through the present sum
mer and face another winter. Some
thing good should come to him to re-
ward him for the losses chargeable to
Jack Frost. Mr.. Hamilton states that
not only was alfalfa and winter wheat
killed out, but IS per cent of the young
fruit trees were destroyed. Even the
older peach trees, except in a few rare
instances, have been killed. This is
certainly an unfortunate situation, and
especially dlscouraging to those who
have taken up land within the past few
years and were just getting fair start.
A majority of these settlers are with
out means, dependant upon the pro-
duct of their land for a living, and they
will be hard hit. 1t is little satisfac-
tion for them to know that similar
frigid visitation maJ not occur again
in score OF years, for they have in
disputable evidence that extreme cold
will get in its work occasionally, espec-
tally when they have not had time to
provide against such a contingency.
OF course the country and the individ-
ual will recuperate from the blow, but
in the meantime the loss will be felt
and" observable in very dull summer
and fall unless something at present
unforeseen turns up TO improve the un-
favorable situation.
Mr.. Hamilton's report has been cor
federated by statements made to the
writer by F. J. Cummings, of the Glen
wood Mercantile company, who does
much travelling up and down the land,
is very observant and is in the habit
of keeping pretty close tab on prevail
ing conditions among the producer and
consumer. He also pronounces the
damage done by the cold winter as very
heavy in the aggregate, effecting a
vast number of people, and is sure to
be felt by those looking largely to the
prosperity of the farmer as stimulus
to general business. Mr.. Cummings
himself stands in as very heavy loser,
although he takes the touch philosoph-
ically, and has already taken measures
to repair losses he sustained. He had
a magnificent field of alfalfa, near Riv-
erside, that for years has yielded a
handsome annual revenue, and the win
ter nipped it. He wasted no time in
regrets, however, as he has reseeded
the ground, turned on the water and
will soon have another healthy stand
of the staple fodder. But the severest
loss Mr.. Cummings met with was the
annihilation of young orchard. Last
fall he had out 400 thrifty, vigorous
promising young apple trees, and of
this number he reports that hardly a
dozen survived the winter. Mr.. Cum
mings places his loss altogether in the
neighborhood of $1,000. OF course
that gentleman is in position where
loss of that magnitude does not ma
terially harm him, and he can easily
and speedily regain the ground lost,
but there are many, very many, who
will find it hard work to get back on
their feet, even though the monetary
damage they have suffered is not near
ly so great in dollars and cents as that
falling upon Mr.. Cummings.