Part 8 (1/2)
Besides wheat, these lands produce barley of superior quality, weighing fifty pounds to the bushel, at the rate of fifty to sixty bushels per acre, and oats weighing thirty-eight pounds to the bushel at the same rate per acre. The weight of wheat is sixty pounds to the bushel. Barley sells at 90 cents per 100 pounds, and is largely s.h.i.+pped East to be made into beer.
The wheat usually grown is the Little Club, a short, strong white wheat; but the Little Giant, Red Chaff and Chili Giant are productive. Spring wheat is generally sown, but winter wheat is probably best. Blue stem brings five cents extra in Portland. Freight, $5 a ton from Walla Walla to Portland; thirty-three bushels counted a ton.
The wheat here has no enemies--no fly, nor rust, nor weeds, nor lodging.
[Sidenote: The soil a natural fertilizer.]
Much of the land has been cultivated for sixteen years without rest or manure, and without diminution of crop; but the best farmers prefer to rest and cultivate in alternate years. By the latter system the ploughing is done in the off-year, and the land left a naked fallow.
This is thought to cleanse the land and renew its strength. And in some cases in which lands have an excess of alkali, their productiveness increases with cultivation. Sometimes the land contains as much as eighteen pounds of potash to the cubic yard; which fact, by the way, suggests the possibility of leaching the land to procure potash and other alkalies.
[Sidenote: Quality of the wheat.]
The wheat of the Pacific coast has 4 per cent. less gluten in it than the Eastern wheat, and this practically shuts it out of the Eastern market. Nitrogen in Was.h.i.+ngton Territory wheat is 22 per cent. to 26 per cent., whilst in the Eastern it is 34 per cent. to 40 per cent., and inferior in quality. The true gluten is too brittle. It is better than the California wheat, however, which has 4 per cent. to 6 per cent. less nitrogenous matter, and the gluten inferior in quality. But the California wheat makes a whiter flour than the Was.h.i.+ngton Territory wheat, which is an advantage in selling. It should be remarked that the term nitrogen, when applied technically to wheat, includes true gluten, the phosphates, and all alb.u.minoids, and excludes starch, sugar and water, which latter comprise about seventy-two per cent. of the wheat.
Still, the Was.h.i.+ngton Territory wheat-grower has the advantage in quant.i.ty per acre, which gives him a better profit than is now made in California or any Eastern State. The price at Spokane Falls varies from 45 cents to 60 cents per bushel, which would give the farmer $10 to $12.50 per acre for his crop, which is more than the average Eastern farmer gets, whilst the cost of production ought to be, and ultimately will be, less.
[Sidenote: The market in England, China, and other Asiatic ports.]
Flour is sent to England, by Cape Horn, at a cost of $1.30 per barrel from Spokane Falls, and in Liverpool brings within 20 cents a barrel as much as the Minneapolis flour, and it is also s.h.i.+pped to China and other Asiatic ports, where it seems destined to supersede rice for bread.
China raises wheat, but not nearly enough for home consumption. The Asiatic and Oceanic market will, ultimately, want all the wheat of our Pacific States.
[Sidenote: Astonis.h.i.+ng growth of vegetables.]
[Sidenote: Crops without rain.]
Besides the cereals, vegetables of nearly all kinds grow to great size on this plateau. Those requiring a more uniformly warm temperature, such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, beans and peanuts, do best in the region lying south of the Snake River, which is much less elevated than the country north and east. And this is true also of peaches, grapes, and other fruits requiring similar conditions. But as regards most vegetables, especially roots, and also fruits, the plateau generally is very productive. This is almost unaccountable in view of the fact that after the first of June there is little or no rain until late in the fall. Whilst rain seems to be necessary to start the small seeds, large crops of potatoes are sometimes raised without a drop of rain. The moisture must come partly from the soil, which has retained the winter water, and partly from the deposition of moisture by the sea-air which comes through the gap in the Cascade Mountains and penetrates the deep, loose soil. Mr. Paul F. Mohr has measured a parsnip four feet long and eight inches across the top. I saw potatoes in Colfax, thirty of which filled a bushel measure.
As before intimated, I doubt whether the plateau can ever become a good gra.s.s and hay country. For long forage, besides straw, the people must depend upon the cereals mowed in the green state.
[Sidenote: West (not East) Was.h.i.+ngton is to be the great cattle country.]
For this reason the plateau, as will also be the case with the great plains eastward, can never carry the number of cattle that can be grazed in a gra.s.s country. A farmer told me it required fifteen acres of bunch gra.s.s to support one horse or steer, whilst in a gra.s.s country three acres are ample, and on the best sods one acre is sufficient. Still, the bunch gra.s.s is, and ought to be, utilized. And the areas of unimproved land are so vast that the herds of cattle, horses and sheep which range upon them altogether const.i.tute a large item of wealth. And on these treeless plains the effort seems to be to train the cattle and horses to live like buffaloes and wild horses in both summer and winter.
[Sidenote: Tree-planting.]
The tree problem will, I think, work out satisfactorily, though, of course, no such trees can ever be produced there as abound in West Was.h.i.+ngton. Walla Walla is embowered in trees of artificial growth. The Lombardy poplar seems to have been most successful. At various points I saw plantations of box elder, and was told that this tree is easily grown. The cottonwood is said to grow readily. Captain John McGowan reports the successful culture of locust, walnut, maple and catalpa in Lincoln County. He says, also, that the plum, peach, apricot, apple, pear and grape succeed: and so with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. All these fruits are grown about Spokane Falls, but I think that the grape and peach sometimes fail to mature. A good many plantations of trees have been set out under the timber-culture act of Congress, but it is thought that much imposition has been practised on the Government by the failure to take proper care of the trees after they were planted. The truth about the whole matter seems to be that, with proper care, trees of most varieties may be grown on the plateau, but that they will grow slowly and not attain large size. I might add many details concerning the products of this wonderful country, but these will suffice as ill.u.s.trations.
LABOR.
[Sidenote: Good supply of labor, but more wanted.]
Under this head I will merely say that, though the laboring population of Was.h.i.+ngton Territory is very mixed and has not the settled character of labor in the old States, and though many more laborers could find employment, there does not seem to be any special deficiency of this cla.s.s, and the high wages that are paid will, no doubt, bring in more workmen as they are wanted.
[Sidenote: Wages.]
Governor Squire, in his report for 1885, page 41, gives quite a detailed list of wages, which shows that the rates are at least fifty per cent.
higher than in the Middle States, and double what is paid in the Southern Atlantic States. Farm laborers get from $25 to $30 a month and board. Loggers pay from $35 to $40 per month to common hands, and $65 to $70 to teamsters. Skilled labor receives high wages, and railway contractors sometimes have to pay $2 to $2.50 per day for common hands. Servant girls are scarce, and wanted, at $15 a month and board.
Hotel servants get from $20 to $25 a month. Chinamen are extensively employed for family servants. Many of them are tolerable cooks, and get $30 a month and board. Indians are working more than formerly. The men ”slash” the forests, pick hops, etc. Squaws always were industrious--had to be! The Sandwich Islands, as well as China and j.a.pan, furnish some laborers. The employers are favorable to this cla.s.s of immigrants, whilst the white laborers are bitterly opposed to them. Canada will continue to employ cheap Chinese labor, and thus place our Pacific States at a disadvantage, if the present policy of excluding Chinese labor is continued.