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Show 16 WASHINGTON TERRITORY, ITS MATERIAL large amount of prairie land, in fact most of the land bet:ween the two points named, is an open, beautiful country, though rather poor land, still it raises good wheat, is good grazing land, and many fine homes already dot it over. The Shehalis river has a large amount of splendid land bordering it, room for ten thousand, and perhaps more, elegant farms. A great portion of the country adjacent to this stream is prairie land; the worst feature, is having to haul their produce twenty to thirty-five miles by teams. The Cowlitz valley offers inducements to many families. Lake river, and the country back of the town of Vancouver, present inducements to thousands of men seeking homes in the country. The Walla Walla, Yakuma, Okanagan, Colville and many other valleys in the eastern side of the territory, are well adapted to farming purposes, and judging from all the facts at our command, there are good agricultural lands sufficient in Washington Territory, east of the Cascade mountains, to accommodate a hundred thousand farmers. The islands situated in Admiralty Inlet, are many of them suited to grazing and agricultural purposes. Whidby island has many splendid farms, and among the farmers one sees all the refinement and endearments of lwme. A large amount of tidal prairie land bord ers various portions of the Sound, flooded only by the highest tides. Bordering the streams that are directly tributary to Puget Sound, Admiralty Inlet and Fuca Strait, there are of bottom or valley lands, over three millions of acres, and many acres of ~rood farming land upon or within the higher localities. Of all this, not one acre in fifty is cultivated. I speak within due bounds when I say fifteen thousand farmers can locate rich lands as homesteads on Paget Sound. Men to be successful as farmers ~nust b~ satisfied to work for a home, the first few years, and be mdustnous. Idleness will not clear land, build houses, and create a home out of raw materials. , RESOURCES AND CLAIMS TO EMIGRATION. 17 CHAPTER IX . . AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. Wheat is grown all over the Territory, and the yield is astonishingly large as well as the quality good. The poorer classes of lands are better adapted to wheat raising, there being a tendency to smut and rust, with wheat grown upon our rich valley land. Oats, barley, rye, peas and all the vegetables usually grown in temperate climates are particularly suited to the Territory. Larger crops are grown onPuget Sound than I have ever seen elsewhere. Beans do pretty well, and corn flourishes in certain localities, though the summer nights are too cool for . the rapid growth and general culture of the latter. Buckwheat does moderately. Timothy, orchard grass, clover, and in fact, all the grasses that have been tried, are especially adapted to our soil and climate. Crops of grass have been cut on White and Dwamish rivers that average over four tons to the acre, and farmers claim to have cut from an acre of ground at one mowing, six tons of timothy hay. Tobacco has been profitably raised the past two years; but whether . it will prove a successful crop when prices fall, remains to be tested. Tomatoes are easily cultivated,. and where they flourish it is understood most other vegetables do. Flax seems well suited to the climate. Many varieties of grains and vegetables have not yet been tried, but no doubt exists in the minds of 'those acquainted with our climate, as to the successful production of anything that grows north of "thirtysix, thirty." CHAPTER X. LUMBER. Paget Sound is emphatically a lumbering district. We manufacture annually a hundred and thirty million feet of lumber, twenty-two and a half million laths, twenty and a half million shingles, a hundred thousand feet of piles, and about two thousand spars, also a large number of ship knees. The supply of logs for lumber will only be exhausted when the mountains and the valleys surrounding the Sound, are destroyed by some great calamity of nature. For when this generation shall have perished, the forests by them laid low, will have begun anew c |