The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1911-02-09
BOOSTS FROM A KANSAS KNOCKER
ALSO A FEW COMMENTS ON THE SAME

only a few feet below the surface.
The melting SHOWS up in the moun-
tains caused great floods in June and
November, and the land known as the
Skagit flats is the result of the silt
and earth brought down in the noun
tain torrents and deposited in the vas
pile of logs and debris. Some of 1t
became timbered area while the
richest of it, at the time of the white
mans invasion, was tule swamp or
marsh covered with ''cat-tails" and
water, into which the tides from the
bay backed up through sloughs twice
every day. After this land was cleared
and drained by the old pioneers (wf1
are still spoken of as the men with
strong backs and weak minds). there
still remained the problem of keeping
cut the annual overflows of the river
and tides. For distance of forty
miles up this stream along this
fertile body of land, expensive dikes
are maintained OH the rivers banks,
and along the bay front. Frequently
these dikes are broken through ty
Ihe November floods (once since
have resided here), and territory
tAirty miles square and densely pop
alated, is inundated to depth
varying from three to twenty feet
The tax on the land per acre for
dixie and drainage is about 81 per
year, in addition to the usual
county and state tax. But after the
flood recedes, during the winter the
land is even richer than before, and
he rancher is usually compensated
Tor his inconvience.
Speaking of the floods, reminds Inc
that this town is on the flat lands
between the timbered hills and the
river, which really divides the town
east and west, about fourteen miles
upstream from salt water. A
week ago steamboats, tied up at the
city dock We're riding the turbid
waters of the Skgait six feet above
tie level of the streets OF Mt.
Vernon. The big strong dikes
that begin at the point of the hill
that projects itself against the upper
portion of the town and stretch a
way to the sea, kept the waters back,
.aad-. while. this roaring. tumbling
mountain torrent swept past car
rying immense trees and thousands
of giant logs, the inhabitants went
to their beds and slept soundly with
out any show of fear. And if the
dikes had broken in the city every
one of us would have found himself
i'll water up to his neck in two hours
time.
1t is said that grass is green here
the year round, and that a man may
pasture stock every month in the
year. 1t is true, and while the grasses
and clovers are green and luXuriant,
even in mid-winter, it is also true tha
they have practically no nutritive
value. 1t takes heat and sunshine to
put nutrition into grass. 1t is not all
in the soil, as the Gail Borden and
Carnation condensed milk people will
tell you. Dairy products here are
lacking in several of the elements
most priced, and it is manifestly due
TO the lack of heat. The growth is
luxuriant, and a glimpse into Man-
gelsdorf's greenhouse will give you "A
very good idea of how the entire
countryside looks in summer-a pro-
fusion of beautiful grasses, ferns and
roses. Wild flowers are not numerous
but there are more kinds of beautiful
foliage plants than any place nave
any knowledge of.
Most of the area of Western Wash
ington is rough. hilly upland, par
TALLY cleared and standing thick in
immense fir and cedar stumps. On
this, the soil is thin, seldom more
than four or five inches thick, and
underlaid with what is called hard-
pan, 1t is really a glacial formation OF
cement rock and clay, mixed in m
tures own mill, and properly diluted
with small round rocks. This Is SO
hard it is impervious to even the tor
rental rains of winter. and on the
flat surfaces holds the water like a
cement -bottomed cistern. Glover and
all crops that can be matured early in
tie season do fairly well. even on
this scanty SOIL but it dries up and
becomes baked under the July and
August sunshine Eventually it Will
be used as dairy land. 1t is held from
$50 to SO an acre, and you may ado
to that 800 an acre for the cost ol
getting the stumps out Many mer
are supporting families and doing
fairly well on farm of twenty oi
thirty acres of this logged-off upland
But it is about like trying to live
by farming in Cove county, Kansas
or some other of those extreme dry
western counties.
Men with big money and the nerve
to take a plunge. may do well mere
The man who wishes to mingle the
iov Of living with a fair return for HI
labor and who can derive part o
beauty-study, will find this an at
tractive county. But it is reall!
about an even break with Eastern
Kansas. You merely exchange fol
an entire new set of troubles am