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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1887)
720 THE WEST SHORE. chief buamess thoroughfare, is one bun- no practical experience with irrigation, dml and twenty feet wide, and Natches a prejudice againrt that method of farm, avenue, the principal residence street, is ing; but an investigation of its merits one hundred and forty feet in width, can not but convert every intelligent, In laying out the city, the projectors practical man. Its merits are briefly thought of the future, and made these stated. The farmer who has his land provisions for creating one of the most well covered by irrigating ditches is in. beautiful and attractive capital cities in dependent of the caprices of nature, tho West, with wide streets lined with Neither drouth nor flood menace him. beautiful shade trees and handsome res- If his crops need moisture, he has it idenceg. ready at any time, while at the same Tojxigrapbically, Yakima county pre- time he is exempt from the damage sents a series of hills, plateaus, low which follows too copicus rains. He moonUin ranges and long stretches of can, also, feel free from the mental bur. valley land lying along the streams. The den which the farmer in the rain belt hills and table lands are covered in part always bears, the fear that, at the last with sago brush, and in part with luxu- moment, an unlucky storm will ruin his riant bunch grass. With the interme- harvest, and deprive him of the reward diate valleys, they have for years consti- of his year of hard toil. A farmer in a tuted the best pasture lands on tho dry country, with a good soil and an un Northwest coast Thousands of cattle failing supply of water at his command, have grazed on the nutritious bunch which he can, at will, turn upon any por. grass, as thousands are still doing, and tion of his land which may require many of the rich men of Oregon and moisture, and shut off from other por- 1 Washington owe not a little of their tions which may already have sufficient, wealth to tho grassy slopes of Yakima, comes as near being his own master as Owing to the lightness of the rainfall, an agriculturist ever can. A compari and its almost total absence during late son of what has been accomplished in spring and early summer, tho best re- California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Col suits in agriculture are produced by ir- orado, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and ligation. Happily, there is an abun- Washington upon irrigated lands, with dant and never failing supply of water the results upon lands in any region de for this purpose, which may bo easily pendent upon natural rainfall, is most utilized. Capital is required to accom- flatteringly favorable to the former. The plish this, but not in such large amounts prejudice against irrigation will disap aa is necessary in many regions. Through pear so completely before the light of j tho center of the county runs the Yaki- facts, that people will wonder that it ma river, carrying a largo volume of wa- ever existed. The greatest agricultural tor from the mountains, and receiving, achievements of ancient civilizations within the county, tho waters of tho Ah- were accomplished by this means, and i tanum, Wcnas, Natehes, Topinish, Satas in the "scientific farming" of the future and other tributaries. Along tho course there is no doubt that tho proper ma- of the main river, and extending up nipulation of tho irrigating ditch will be theso tributary ttrearus, is a series of counted as one of the most essential valleys, embracing many thousand acres features. There is another feature which of arable land, which can all bo irrigat- must bo considered. The water comes ed by water from the neighlwring rivers, down from the mountains and plateaus Thero is, among farmers who have had freighted with the fertilizing materials j