Wallowa County chieftain. [volume] (Enterprise, Or.) 1909-1911, 1910-04-28
THE FUTURE HOME
OF HORTICULTURE
Enterprise. the Busy Coun-
ty Seat City, Made Up
of Wide Awake,
Live" Ones.

A considerable numDer OF sIorleS
has been written of the west. In
! some instances these stories have
been merely-stories. There have
been colored accounts of this or that
locality foisted upon eastern commu-
--nities. There have doubtless been
exaggerations of soil and climate,
mineral and water power, land and
opportunity. Enthusiasm has spur
red to some of it and the desire for
gain has spmred to some of it. But
in it all there was a keen desire to
serve. Moreover what is now the
east was once the west, and 1t too
sent back the same stories of the
hom of plenty and the cornucopia
spilling golden dreams and silver
clouds Of wealth and q profuston al
everything that is best and most de-
sirable and that enlivens the aver
4ge human breast with the hope
Of possession.
Such Stories ObsoIese.
But such sort of stories is obso-
lete. 1t is brand that passed away
with the passing of ignorant cred
Ility. Today It is not possible to
fool the eastern settler about lands
fruit belts, climate, soils, nor the
business man about good business op
enings. For the reason that the
migrating public, taking advantage
of our modern, means of communica-
ion and transportation, is awake
10 the opportunities of the earth
everywhere. Government reports
serve this public with detailed infor-
nation. Travel has widened the set
tiers scope of knowledge and COM
prehension. Reading has taught
him to have a care; as to exactness
of expression and correctness of re-
Election of any locality. And more
than that the settler today has mon
ey enough and time enough first to
come to see any locality he is inter
ested in. Such settlers would never
be hoodwinked by any exaggerated
statements, however glittering and
brilliant. In the language of the vau
deville song, they would walk right
in, turn around, and walk right out
again.
Simple Truth Telling.
1t is the desire of this paper to
give at frequent intervals a conser-
vative account of the city of Enter
prise and of Wallowa county. These
accounts will in large way be sent
to the states of the middle west. in
many instances to personal friends
of the editor. And the effort. there.
ore, will be made to understate rath.
er than to overstate the wide, va.
Ttedi possibilities and potentialdties
of the city and county.
First Impressions.
The first impression the newcom
er from the east will have is the
magnificent climate here, then the
spanking good county seat city OF
Enterprise. After which it will dawn
upon the settler that these hundreds
OF thousands of acres of land in Wal
iowa county reveal a future agricul
tural and horticultural greane ess
that is really appalling in its great
ness.
In some portions of Wallowa coun
ty are wheat lands-thousands Of
acres of them-equal If not superior
TO the famous ''Palouse" lands which
ad1oin the county on the north. Bacl
IN the states Of the middle ives
The farmer Is delighted with a whea
crop of twenty bushels to the acre
sometimes he gets twenty-five bush
els, and when, in exceptional cases
one there gets thirty bushels to tn.
acre there is vision of riches ant
bedizened prosperity, that swoons in
10 dreams of case and incites t.
hopes of eternal opulence.
In Wallowa county. after breaking
the new ground, rolling 1t ant
First planting to rye, the farmer car
raise from thirty to forty bushels o
wheat to the acre regularly; and ou
here he feels more like getting dis
couraged that Vt is not forty-fiv,
bushels. than like growing enthusi
atsic over a big yield. That is tn,
difference.
Some years ago 1t was held popu
larly that oats could not be raised