The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1910-02-11

pepper trees, umbrella trees,
loquats, and mulberry. Wheat,
oats and barley are the principal
grain crops.
Around Orland, which is small
town OF about $50 inhabitants. the
government has under construct
ion an irrigation system, designed
to irrigate $4,000 acres of land in
1911. The country is very sparce-
ly settled at present. The climate,
Mr.. Koch has been. informed, is
about the same as that of Walla
Walla.
Writing Of the history Of the
region, Mr.. Koch says in part:
81 have talked with many old
timers and find beyond reasona-
BILE doubt that this country has
undergone many evolutionary
changes. One hundred years ago
it was settled by comparatively
few Spaniards. scattered along the
rivers. Then, when the United
States assumed jurisdiction in the
4o's,. it soon got to be a cattle
country. The old settlers tell me
that in the SOS the wild oats,
which they say was the native
grass, was as tall as a horse, and
the whole Sacramento valley was
the cattleman's paradise. But
evolution soon did its work. The
cattle business was overdone, the
range played out, and a change
took place. The settlers came
. over the mountains and displaced
the cattleman and the Indian.
Agriculture was the next step,
principally wheat, till, in 1880,
Colusa county, which then con.
tanned the territory embraced in
the present Colusa and Glenn
counties, was the banner wheat
county in the United States. l
have seen grain warehouses at
least 500 feet long, which are now
empty, and they tell me that IS
years ago these were filled to over
flowing, and countless thousands
of sacks we're piled up outside.
But they overdid the wheat busi-
ness. They raised wheat year
! after year, burned off the stubble,
resolved the ground without plow-
ing it, and when they did plow it
they just scratched it over, and dc
so yet. l have seen this with my
own optics. They tell me that in
the early days all they had to dc
was to scratch in the seed and the
Lord and soil would do the rest.
And they were always sure of a
crop most generally yielding 40 to
60 bushels per acre, and very sci.
dom less than 80. But that has
all changed. They tell me that 1c
to 20 bushels is about what they
have been getting the last 8 to ID
years, and about IL to IA sacks O
barley per acre is fair crop O
late years. Things have changed
!. A large percentage of the untole
thousands Of acres of wheat land ha
: for several years been, and now are
lying out to the commons, as sheep
turkey and other pasture. An oil
timer tells me that many man ha
been made and broke in this vale,
poor men became rich and poo
again, and rich men made poor, AM
: so on. cannot tell you all the in
formation have gathered from peo
, pie in all walks of life (not from rea
' estate men) and in general is n
, doubt true. They, in general way
e tell about the same story, and the
\ most certainly could not all tell tn
same lie the same way"
i Continuing, the letter states that
n new change is coming with irrigatio
around Orland, and that it looks q
+ if something will be doing aroun
O there, and Mr.. Koch says the local
d ty certainly has good future
!. store, and he believes Orland wi
n have from 5000 to 5000 people j
the next three to five years.
e Common labor is paid $500 p,
!, day Of 8 hours; man and team 5
co,,t. ~, hour. caruerterS X2 S0 M