The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-05-16
LEWIS ON DOUGLAS
COUNTY
Editor of Mansfield News:

Editor of Mansfield News:
At your suggestion l am sending
you a few impressions of the Big
Bend country which improves with
every visit | make to it until now
it is my firm conviction that Doug
las county is going to be in the near
future one of the most prosperous
farming sections in the Northwest.
and as yet only in the infancy of IT'S
development. In the first place there
are evidences that it is not long to
be only one crop proposition, as
have seen excellent corn that was
grown on summer fallow and was
told by one grower, Mr.. Duncan, that
he got Is per cent more wheat on
the land after corn than on similar
land growing nothing Think of it
-15 per cent more wheat besides
a great silo full of ensilage which
should make any business farmers
heart glad when it was saving hay
worth $40 a ton.
In my opinion the possibilities of
Douglas county have not been fully
appreciated even by it's most san
guine boosters and I predict that in
five years from now it will be pro-
ducing IS for every 81 it did in
1909. These results will be brought
about by better farming. by dlversi-
fled crops, by new land being brought
under the pillow, by the magic of a
railroad and not least by improved
machinery. That the limit has not
plain when one contemplates the
most wonderful advance made, in the
caterpiller engine now being used by
Mr.. Padgett at Lamoine. This ma
chine plows, harrows, seeds. pulls
the combine and, to cap it all, hauls
the wheat to market Think of a
machine that takes the place of "a
horses and is run by one man, and
when this man touches the button
the feed bill stops right there; all
expense, in fact, until it is time to
start up next day or next spring, as
the case may be.
Just think of "a horses rolled in
to one Caterpillar, doing all the work
on the farm usually done by horses
and mules which must be fed three
times a day, 365 days in the year.
The remarkable thing about the
Caterpillar is that 1t lays 1t own
track as it goes along and can be
taken over soft ground, roads and
bridges, which it would be impossi-
BILE to take an ordinary steam or
even gasoline vehicle over. This is
an invention which Is going to revo-
lutionize farming.
Corn will become more and more
a factor in the development of Doug
las county as the years go by. The
corn acreage OF the world, like that
OF cotton, Is limited, the United
States producing about 70 per cent
OF the whole, so that any land pro-
ducing corn is destined to rise in
value for many years after wheat
land has reached highest mark, es-
pecially as corn Is now being used
more in Europe as human food. Not
as a stock food only.
| Potatoes grow here to perfection
ami in prodigal quantities. so much
so that they could be fed in combin-
alton with wheat or corn in a pro-
fitable ration to hogs. Peas, too.
do we'll and no better feed for hogs
can be grown. 1t is very likely that
Kafir corn will do we'll, too.
When you have a county that
grows the finest wheat in the world,
will grow better and more potatoes
| to the acre than old Ireland itself.
will grow corn which takes the place
Of hay at $40 a ton, and peas that
| not only make the sweetest pork On
earth but improve the land in the
same way that alfalfa does through
the nitrogen gathering bacteria
which live on the roots of the plants.
Coupled with these wonderful gifts
Of nature the prosperous, progress
i've. hopeful farmers of Douglas
county have the latest machinery,
fine horses and mules and a climate
unexcelled in any part Of the world.
is it any wonder then that they are
natural boosters AMI feel In their
hearts that the lands now selling at
from $40 to $50 an acre will go to
$75 or 800, and that the population
will double in a few years, as 1t sure
| ly we'll? r. NJ. LEWIS.