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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1882)
August, 1 88a 5 THE WEST SHORE. We arc now in the midst of the "4 Lake" country, one of the first to attract settlers to the Spokane county. Ex tending west toward the "Grand Cou lee," and north towards the "Big Bend" Mild Colville country, there are large bodies of productive lands, with here and there narrow patches of rocky land, L' L .1 .... !....!.. 1 I-J 011 wnicn snecp arc extensively nerucu, an i with the rich soil surrounding eriv ing full opportunities for diversified farming. Sample of cereals from this country, now on exhibition in Portland, show a very high grade of wheat, oats and barley. The sprightly, growing little towns of Davenport, Mondovi and Sedalia, flourish west of Cheney, Hundreds of thousands of acres have been sold in this region by the railroad land office at Cheney, and thousands of fertile acres await purchasers. Leaving Cheney, we soon enter the timber, and in an hour hear the mur muring cadence of Spokane Falls, the nncst town-site in the Pacific northwest. Inspired by its beauties of location, and having reached one of the main noinK for which we started, we will lay aside 11 extraneous matter and give the solid facts concerning the growing and at tractive SPOKANE COUNTRY. Until the advent of the Northern Pa cilic Railroad the Spokane country was a (ma incognita to all others than resi dents of Eastern Washington, and it was not an uncommon thing to meet people in Oregon, and California even, who asserted that the terms Sahara or And Plains and Spokane were synony 'ou. Andtothisday.notwithstand '"g the avalanche of newspaper corres pondence, hundreds and thousands of people who re on tht lnnl-M.t homes, have but a faint perception of ; , "lu,uon 01 section, and, naturally enough, are .thirst for every 'tern of really reliable infonjwU J concerning i. At the Ptronl,npcction,efeel justified in 'he opuon that, in what we say ,l thc SPk" country, we feel we are doing, real service to . commg settler,, M Wcli d duty due our readers. S It is t thil i& wri ,HC 'mlus,n "J resource, .re com tn.. lh.nk.ng m.n can Wne wha mplUheJalryanV; lprinir how small a fraction of the capabilities has been utilized, without the conclusion that trie tuture nere is very bright. To this may be added that . rv M 1 - 1 -i. the present is an "ou year, ana wnai produces a favoruble impression now ... . . rwM . i will do better next year. 1 ne rauway era in this country has compelled a very rapid development and expansion of re sources, and a new aee has dawned for this part of the Northwest. The farm er, merchant and business man has been brought into rapid, easy, and really cheap communication with the other sections of the great Northwest. A market has in this way been supplied. The railway progressive spirit has pen etrated all the ramifications of trade and commerce, the hardships of the pioneer effort have disappeared, some of the luxury and ease of the older set tled states have steadied the privations of the frontier, and prosperity is seen in every city, town and hamlet, indeed it is indexed in every face one meets. Perhaps the capabilities, resources, and probable future developments of Spokane county have been less written about and are more imperfectly under stood than any other particular portion ot the territory. Uutil July, 1881, there was no rail way communication, and the traveler by stage caught no glimpse of the rich valleys and the broad and fertile plains. Spokane county is the most eastrlv of the territory, and there is but one county-btevens-lymg between it and the British possessions. Its area is icy 000 square miles-much larger than many eastern and middle states-and presents not only a variety of climatei but soil. Its chief attractions to th emigrant are, pleasant, healthful cli mate, soil that m productiveness com pares more than favorably with any in the Union. Specimen., r ... , , . niiwi, oats, barley, timothy and buckwheat, gath ed from the fields in the immediate v.c.n,ty of Spokane Falls, and placed on exhibition at the Mechanics' Fair n Portland last year, were awarded the" fc. Th!len-on exhibition at Zr Immi?rati". in Port- 'ana, are excentinnnii.. t. . b-n established by statistics from th Agricultural Bureau . w... 106 itvtwk- 7 ""smngton -y, that this territm- . . of the list !n ;..Lr ius.at.the the " "l product on, average be, -T-cment (and there is much roora for it) in the methods of cultivation, the average will be increased. .' In many , places, within ten miles of Spokane Falls, which yielded an average of forty to fifty bushels to the acre, sixty bush- , els have been raised in the Colville val, ley, still further north. The average -yield of oats is about seventy bushels. though on Peone plateau, ten miles northeast from Spokane Falls, full inn bushels have been produced. The soil of this county is possessed of the con stituents insuring lasting qualities. The average depth is fully three feet, even ; on the slopes, excepting of course the '. washed banks of water courses. In the gravel there is mixed a black loam, rich as it can possibly be; and in general terms, the soil possesses all the mineral salts necessary to the perfect growth of the cereals. The clods are easily brok en, and the ground quickly crumbles on exposure to the atmosphere. One of the strange, and, by the emi- grant, not quite understood things, is the fact that while Spokane county has a long, dry ; season, no irrigation ' is necessary, the crops have never failed. in fact are always assured It is plain enough to those living here. The farm er does not depend upon the clouds or Streams: he alwavR has thf warm air , currents surcharged with vapor, com- , incr in frrm tha PnoIC . J iU. Ure with wh!rh tlinunu loJon ; UA - ...... hivsv mi. lautu la uiu in suspension' during the day; and dif- c fused over the entire country during the ; mosphere into the form of a mist. It IB Oo rrsxsNsI l J. i- 1 1 I .1.1 .. o iw juuu, ur ucucr even, man iigni ' shower. In the middle of the ' day in July or August, you can find ' moisture sufficient within a few inches of the surface; plenty of it deeper down.- This is the secret of the success of grain v. crops in all eastern Washington. And so, when it is remembered that fjirma OfA Vin. 1 a . 1 , a n Ir ....a mv uwug ticaicu every mat to-aay grain is growing where last season herds were roaming, that there are tens of thousands of acres of railroad ' and government lands waitinsr for the ' simplest and cheapest taking, when the vastness of the area of Spokane county: is realized, that the 'Northern Pacific main line traverses the county, and that this and manv branches nroiected will j j j develop every acre, that the soil and climate furnish the finest vegetables and cereals known to commerce, that their shipment is rapid and cheap, that