Part 17 (1/2)
SNOQUALMIE, W. T., Nov. 3, 1887.
DR. RUFFNER.
_Dear Sir_: In response to your request, I make the following memoranda. Our Hop Farm consists of 1,500 acres of rich alluvial soil; 300 acres in hops, which produce from 1,800 to 2,000 pounds per acre. We also raise 150 acres of oats, producing sixty to seventy-five bushels per acre. From 100 to 150 acres in hay, producing about three tons to the acre. Also large quant.i.ties of vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, turnips and onions. All kinds of root vegetables are prolific except sweet potatoes.
Fruits, such as apples, pears, prunes, plums, and berries of all kinds, are in abundance. Last year we had over 5,000 bushels of apples.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HAY-MAKING IN WAs.h.i.+NGTON TERRITORY ALONG LINE OF SEATTLE, LAKE Sh.o.r.e AND EASTERN RAILWAY.]
At present we s.h.i.+p in about 500 tons per year of merchandise and supplies, and s.h.i.+p out, in the way of hops and other things, from 400 to 500 tons per year. This we could double if we had railroad facilities for s.h.i.+pping. We employ during the winter--that is, in November, December and January--about forty men; the rest of the year, from 75 to 1,200 men and women. The keeping up of this supply of labor, which all comes from Seattle, would be quite an item to the traffic of a railroad. I presume you know that where there are a large number of people employed, they are continually coming and going. In speaking with a railroad contractor the other day, he told me that in order to keep 500 men at work, he had to keep 1,500 on the road. This will also be an important item when the mines are working above here. There are a great many items of interest to which I might call your attention, but I will confine myself to the above at present.
Yours, very respectfully,
T. G. WILSON, SECRETARY AND MANAGER OF THE HOP GROWERS' a.s.sOCIATION.
[Sidenote: Farming, fruit and grazing lands.]
Besides the bottom lands, there are large areas of what might be called table-lands, north and northeast of the lakes, which are top-dressed with glacial drift, but which will be well adapted to the crops of the country, and especially to fruits. And besides the table-lands, the smaller mountains are generally adapted to agriculture, and especially to grazing. My impression, as heretofore stated, is that, ultimately, West Was.h.i.+ngton will become a great grazing region, though it is generally supposed that East Was.h.i.+ngton is to be the chief cattle country. But the mild and equable climate, and the abundance of rain, ensures abundant forage summer and winter in West Was.h.i.+ngton. This will be important for the feeding of cities farther south, as well as for sending canned and refrigerator beef far and wide over the Pacific Ocean. The growth of vegetables, especially of root crops, is something phenomenal on both sides of the Cascade Mountains, and will furnish a large item of commerce, as is shown already by the large s.h.i.+pments of potatoes from Seattle, and the multiplication of canneries.
[Sidenote: Hops, barley and beer.]
The hop interest is a large one, but the low prices of the last year or two have checked the progress of this industry. Breweries have already been established at Seattle, and elsewhere on Puget Sound, and, as the chief materials for beer (barley and hops) are produced here so cheaply and abundantly, we may expect Puget Sound beer to become quite a large item of commerce.
The Snoqualmie and Squak valleys have as yet but a scattered agricultural population, but ultimately farms will be opened along all the streams, and even high up on the Cascade Mountains.
[Sidenote: The two great railroads.]
On the east side of the Cascade Mountains the Seattle, Lake Sh.o.r.e and Eastern Railway will closely parallel the Northern Pacific Railroad for a short distance in the Yakima River valley, but will probably leave it soon after entering the most productive part. The route, however, may be varied to suit circ.u.mstances, and as to this point no doubt would be if the talk of making Ellensburg the State capital should become serious.
The remark may here be thrown in that this meeting of the two railroads in the Yakima valley will be no disadvantage to the Seattle road, as the distance to Puget Sound is about the same, and the incidental advantages are in favor of Seattle.
[Sidenote: The Great Bend country.]
[Sidenote: Douglas County.]
Crossing the Columbia River, the railway will enter the great plateau which has been so fully described, and if the pa.s.sage should be made at Rock Island Rapids, it will cross the plateau at its widest part.
Nothing more need be said as to the great agricultural capabilities of the plateau country. The Great Bend, or northern limb of the plateau, is more extensive than the southern division, but it is a much less settled country, owing partly to want of transportation, and partly to want of water. This scarcity of water in Douglas County was formerly thought to be incurable without a resort to artesian wells; but experiment has shown that wells of good water can be obtained at moderate depths, as I was informed by Mr. Smith, a resident of the county, and by Mr. Nash, the lawyer, who owns property there. The population and, consequently, the business of this large county is limited at present, but it has a large body of good land in it, which will attract settlers before long. Its soil is of the same character as that of other parts of the plateau; but the general impression seemed to be that it was not quite equal to the land of the Snake River Basin, or to the adjoining county of Lincoln, owing in part to a larger proportion of rough land. I do not, however, consider this question by any means as settled. The best area for wheat is supposed to be that which borders on Lincoln County. If the route for the Seattle railway which is preferred by Mr. Mohr, should be adopted, it would pa.s.s across the northern part of the county, by many persons considered the best part, and leave the great body of the county out of reach to the southward.
[Sidenote: Lincoln County.]
Lincoln County, through the length of which the road must pa.s.s, is universally admitted to be among the best agricultural counties on the plateau. It is also settling up rapidly, and has become a large producer of wheat, even at the disadvantage of a long haul in wagons. Mr. Curtis, who buys much of the Lincoln County wheat for his mill at Spokane Falls, says that the average yield of wheat is twenty-five bushels per acre, though in 1886 (the year of failure) it fell to sixteen and one-half bushels. Captain McGowan, of Lincoln County, also gave twenty-five bushels as the average crop, and said this would hold good for the whole period since the settlement of the county, including the bad year 1886.
[Sidenote: Spokane County.]
[Sidenote: Price of farming lands.]
By reference of the official map showing the wheat areas, it will be seen that the Seattle railway pa.s.ses through the middle of these areas in both Lincoln and Spokane counties. The testimony was entirely favorable in regard to horticultural and pomological products, as well as to the agricultural, in the strict sense. The population of the three counties, Douglas, Lincoln and Spokane, was put by Governor Semple at nearly 18,000; about 17,000 of which was in Lincoln and Spokane. Much land has been bought with a view to settlement as well as speculation, and this would be occupied and cultivated _pari pa.s.su_ with the progress of the railroad, and there yet remains much good land which can be bought at low prices, say from one dollar to five dollars an acre, and will attract settlers. Farming lands here will have market at the mines north of the Columbia River, at Spokane Falls, where there will be a large city, as well as large mills, and at Seattle, where there will be a large demand not only for the city, but for s.h.i.+pping.
[Sidenote: Tonnage.]
No reliable estimates can now be made as to what business this Great Bend country will furnish ten to twenty years hence. We have only this to guide us, namely, that the part of the plateau which lies south of the Northern Pacific Railroad now furnishes 400,000 tons of wheat for transportation annually, besides other freight and pa.s.sengers; and it has not reached one-half of its producing capacity. Mr. Mohr estimates the income from mail and express as one-fifth the income from freight, and pa.s.senger fares as one-quarter of the whole amount from tonnage.