Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-03-03
"TheLast Great West


association secretary, and the
books are brought out in proof
Think of single tree yielding $122
worth of Newtowns, and an acre net
ting $21S7.50 at the orchard! OF
course, these two instances are eX-
ceptions, but the returns are so allur-
ing that prices of good orchard lands
have gone upward by leaps and
bounds, and the sales of developed
orchards are made at better than
$4,000 per acre, while $1,000 seems
a common price. Undeveloped lands
can be purchased in the main valley
at from SIS to $500 per acre, accord
ing to quality and location, while
year old orchards sell at from $500
to $500 per acre.
And speaking of soil quality: the
Rogue has it in the greatest diver
sity. There's the river bottom land,
the choicest of the valley, fertile and
free, and pleasant to work; then
there's the sticky" red and black.
Stories are told, true of course, of
hens that become anchored in this
sticky soil, and of cows that can't
come home because the mud gathers
on their tails till its bigger load
than they can carry. Yet some of
the richest, most productive orch
ards are in this same sticky" but
when it is not understood it is ugly
stuff to work. Other soils are the
red of the foothills, productive
even without irrigation, and various
degrees of sands, loans, gravels and
clays. One district formerly known
as the desert" is underlaid with a
hardpan from six inches to three feet
below the surface, but this is now
being made to grow thrifty orchards,
water having been brought to it
from Butte creek. Where tree
IS to be planted on this hardpan, a
hole is sunk with a crowbar, a stick
or two of dynamite exploded, and the
shattered hardpan Stacks like lime
the young tree having no further
difficulty in getting a root-hold An
other soil met with near the foot
hills is decomposed granite, fertile
when irrigated, and the best for
peaches and apricots. With this
great diversity of soil conditions it
behooves the prospective purchaser
tn Hp
and to buy that character of soil that
will produce best of the products
he proposes to grow. The red soil
OF the foothills, impregnated as it is
with iron, and usually sub-irrigated,
is being largely planted to apples
and grapes, while in the free, sandy
soils of the outlying river bottoms,
quantities of alfalfa are produced,
and all the soils produce heavily of
vegetables where water for irriga-
ton is applied.
The development of the country
has been handicapped and retarded
because it was traversed by a single
line of railroad, the Southern Pacific
having had monopoly of the trans
portation business for years, but re-
lief is expected with the completion
of the Hill line, now being built out
from Medford to connect with the
oregon Trunk under construction
down the Deschutes. While Med
ford is the temporary terminus of
this line, it is not likely that con-
struction will cease till Hill finds out
let upon the Pacific coast, as he re-
Gently announced that the develop
ment of Western Oregon was one of
the problems his company had I'M
dertaken. There are also surveys
and rumors of various lines of cleo
trio roads that will some day utilize
the great water power that only
awaits development. The Rogue it.
self contains power greater than that
of Niagara.
During the past two years the
population of the Rogue has increas-
ed at a most rapid rate, Medford, the
metropolis of the valley, having be-
come city of 10000 people, peo-
pie gathered from all parts of the
Union, yet with less than 2 per cent
OF foreign population. The settlers
of this new old country have been at
tracted by the salubriousness of a
climate far enough south to escape
the rigors of northern winter, yet
far enough north that the burning
rays OF tropic sun have lost their
scorching force; they have been at
tracted by the beauty of the sur
roundings, by the opportunity for
sport and for outing, and by the
proven horticultural excellence and
supremacy.
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