Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1913-08-29
FROM TIE LAND OF NEE FERCES.
tsY MISS LULA S. WALLACE

tsY MISS LULA S. WALLaCE]
1t rs been some time since |
sent a letter to Che Recorder, but l
have been very busy, so that ac-
counts for it. | entered the ldaho
State School IN November, and IN
order to get my life diploma, | had
to 90 the full term, nine months. to
d, that, | had to attend the eight
weeks of summer school which
closed the last of July The last
two weeks of school we've trying,
as the weather was quite warm.
Up to that time we had cool, pleas
ant weather. Lewiston has the dis
tinction of being next to the hottest
town in the Middle West, Phoenix,
Arizona, carrying off the plum.
Well, can certify that it is warm,
all right. Today is the first really
comfortable day we have had for
three weeks. | have thought so
longingly of the lovely cool breezes
aud the delightful nights in High
land and Bath; and when the Re
corder would come with its ever
recurrent refrain of Highland in all
it's green loneliness and GOODNESS, |
could scarcely endure it. 1t almost
made me angry; you good folks
back there do not realize how bliss
fully you are located whenit comes
to weather. You will have to Get
to some of these places out West
where they are always talking about
heir climate, climate" to know
..eaIIy how best you are. Beware
of the town that talks climate out
here!
We are now in the midst of the
fruit season. People are going day
aud night with peaches to the pack
ng houses, canneries, and shipping
chem away in carload lots. Such
beautiful peaches as one rarely sees
IN the East. But the expenses are
so great in irriga:ing, spraying, cul-
tiYating, pisking packing, hauling
md freight rates, that there is nos
nurh money iii the business, btn
ITS Of hard work. There was fine
ROO Of cherries, but when they
were about half marketedlt begaH
raining, and rained continuously
and 50 long that greater part OF
them burst, and so we've not mark
stable. What remained unspoilt
we're ruined by sand storm. For
tuuately peaches are not much hurt
by sand storms.
There ase numerous risks to run
in the fruit business.
Harvesting is over in this imme-
diate valley, but in the upper prai-
RE countries it is in full blast. Bar
ley and wheat are especially fine,
the average yield in many parts OF
the country being 10 bushels to the
acre; heavy combines, that is reap
er, binder, thresher and sacker all
combined in one machine, are pass
ng through here almost daily,
bound for the upland prairies. Ac-
comvanying each Is the cook house
IN wheels, looking like gypy's cab
with its coat of white paint and
neat little windows in, the sides
Quite a number of the college girls
20 out in the summer with these
cooking outfits, and come back III
the fall with money enough to get
them through the winter in school,
with some work on theirpart, about
The college, helping to clean the
dormitories, or v-alt i'll the dining
room, etc. These western girls are
hustlers, and not many of them are
afraid of work. In doing this kind
of work, our girls back home,
would be looked down upon, in fact
this cooking for a lot of harvesters
would not be considered respectable
but here it is taken as quite the
proper thing and no enc says any
t. ing about it. Girls whose fathers
are worth thousands Of dollars, will
go into the packing houses and can
1e.ics here, and work all summer.
| have never gotten used to it, it is
50 different from the way most of
the girls are brought mp in the
South; but it has made the young
women here, or at least, most Of
them, strong and self reliant; able
20 help themselves and others, too;
they seem like they can light up
on their feet" in nearly any situa-
lion; they have no false ideas, and
most of them are capable of doing
almost any kind of work that pre-
sents itself.
One young woman of twenty-five
that | know, from Montana, has
ridden fire patrol for two years. She
has also done the work of a forest
ranger in her district. Both OF
these positions kept her in heav-
lily wooded district. She said she
had frequently ridden all day with
out meeting a person. She is also
a fine primary teacher, and good
musician; to see her she is one of
the most distinctly feminine girls