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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1911)
y ! 1 . ii A D Western Washington and Oregon ; (13 1'" St.-'- . '' h 0 L I Bf ESTEUN WA8HIN0T0N and Oregon have yet many hundred thousand acrea of the very beat of agricultural landa un touched by the hand of man, except that Snf!flC the merchantable timber haa been cut 2J ftn removed, leaving them In the con dition known aa logged-off. Theae landa In the uncleared atate range In price from (3 to 1 50 per acre, according to proximity to market, and averaging rather higher In Washington than In the Beaver atate. Theae lands when under cultivation ell readily at from $160 to $250 per acre, and when planted to orchard soon make the stories of California look like a back number in horticulture. There Is no snow to shovel on the northwest Pa cific coast; moreover, off the average ten-acre tract a man can with hlB own hands obtain enough good, cleen fuel to last him many years and, when that is "gone, obtain for little money, either wood or coal, there being In this region immense fields of the 1st- ter commoany as yei uuioucueu. io iun average farmer the story of the yield of an acre of land on the west coast sounds very much like the tale of Al ladin's lamp, but if the tiller of the soil in the mid west will take the trouble to visit tho Omaha Land Show next October he will see potatoes so large that be will be willing to wager they are hollow in the Center; yet every one will be found to be perfectly sound, mealy and delicious when properly cooked and as good In every respect as they look. He will be truthfully informed that potato bugs never pester the plants In this region; that they grow as readily as weeds; and wonder of wonders that the yield of first-class, merchantable "spuds," as the natives call them. Is 300 to 600 bushels to the acre. You ran dig them as they are wanted for use, or sale, as generally speaking, the ground does not freexe deep enough to hurt them, nor will they decay; but If al lowed to remain in the garden will, when spring comes attain, sprout and bring forth a volunteer crop of goodly proportions. fiooil Grain is Also Growu. ' What is true of vegetables is also true of grain. One hundred bushels of oats, weight forty pounds to the measured bushel, is a very common yield, the quality being the finest. Other small grain, hay and hops, yield equally as well and can always be de pended upon to bring a good figure. For these reasons the assertion Is frequently made, and with good reasons, that an agriculturist can obtain a better income off ten acres of land In the Pacific northwest than can be made out of forty acres of average land in the middle west. Added to the advantages of higher prices and greater yield, is the by no means unimportant fact that transportation charges do not eat up all the profits. First, in fruit, we note the lowly, but luscious strawberry, two crops a year beliig not uncommon, with quantity unsurpassed and quality unexcelled. Nowhere on the universe has this berry a finer flavor or a more Deaumui urpi'aruiK'e. uiurr auiBii uuni, blackberries, raspberries, losan berries, currsnts snd F.ioseberrlcs. thrive luxuriantly and yield in prolific measure. Next we have plums, prunes, pears, peaches, which, when produced in this region, are destined to take prlzvs at njl principal places where prizes are presented. Cherries, too, that had George Washing ton told how large and Juicy they were even his father would have looked at him very closely before ho swallowed the story. Apples the lris lrtxluct. Last, but not least, we come to apples. About hes9 beauties with the red cheeks, volume upon volume has been written and chapter after chapter will yet be typed, before the person who haa not seen the product itstlf can realize its perfection. Get thee the Omaha Land show, that there thou mayest SEOTLE VWTEXI&ONT 1SU WAS bCOTQ T'OIT observe in the height of perfection the fruit which has made Oregon Justly famous. But the man who cornea to this country expecting to settle down in a ready-made park, pick apples la the native forests and find gardens of Eden on the bargain counter will be as badly disappointed as the gold seeker who found mica and mistook it for the real article. It ia true that once a farm, or, as gen erally designated here, a ranch, has been established, a generous Income can be obtained with less labor than in any other country; but no more here than elsewhere can the virgin land be made productive without work. Having got rid of the undergrowth and down timber, there remains to be removed the stumps. If these be of cedar tall enough to permit shingle bolts to be cut therefrom, they are valuable, and as they are not hard to remove can frequently be disposed of to good advantage. Fir, spruce, hem lock and other varieties are not so valuable, but It Is much work to remove the last monument of these United States Government (Continued from Page Two.) township In a levee district of the state of Louisiana; it is about the sise of a man's pocket handkerchief and it is peppered with figures, each one of which shows the height of land or depth of water on the spot which It marks. It gives every stream, and the character of every hill and hollow. The bayous are drawn to a scale and the whole marshy district is shown in such a way that a civil engineer could make working plans for Its drainage. It is this sort of work that is being done throughout the Mississippi delta to fit it for private drainage enterprises, or for the time when the states or the national government may adopt some plan to reclaim the lands. A Job for Vnrle Ham. And Just here I would say that the draining of the swamp lands of the United States should be In the hands of Uncle Sam; indeed, it will need to be so controlled before the work can be done for the good of the country. As it is now 95 per cent of these lands are in the hands of private parties; they were relinquished by the general government to the states about fifty years ago on the understanding that the states would Inaugurate works to reclaim them. The states sold tbem out to Individuals an the same un derstanding, and as a result tens of thousands and millions of acres passed away from the government for a few cents per acre. And now it is found that the work is necessarily a national one. Take this matter of the lower Mis sissippi; the swamps act as great reservoirs 'hlch regulate the flow of the river; they become filled at the times of the floods and seep out gradually into the main current. If the swamps are cut off the water must be all thrown back into the main channel, and this will necessitate raising the levees or dikes which are now along both sides of the Mississippi and other rivers, and which have cost the government and the states tens of millions of dollars. There are more than 1,300 miles of levees along the Mississippi alone. The Yaxoo basin has an unbroken dike and there Is a THE OMAHA SUNDAY PEEsAlIULJOmi. ' - M4( it WW , S(. j ,',1 . giants of the forest. Many different methods have been tried for the eradication of stumps, more or less successful, according to the nature of the soil. It 13 not an impossible, but it is a difficult task, for one or two men to clear a piece of land. Clearing the Lnnd In So Snap. The day Is not far distant when companies with sufficient capital to purchase powerful machinery and employ experienced men will be formed for the purpose of clearing large tracts. For the present it is practically every man for himself. The man from the woods, not afraid of tho hoot of an owl nor the specter of a stump, knows what to expect when he comes to a timbered country, and it was with the Idea of partially preparing the man from the prairie bv uom oruunu me Dasin or tae St. Francis. The government, national and state, has spent 134,000,000 within the last generation to cao the waters of the Mississippi, and the swamps will have to be handled carefully to keep the cages intact. Moreover, no state will allow a sister state to drain its surplus flood waters Into its own territory, and the farmers will kick against receiving surphu water from their. neighbors. These ara some of the problems which confront t!io drainage proposition and make It impossible except through co-operation and national supervision. It is an interstate and national question. I am told by Senator Newlandu tfcat he has treated of this matter in his new bill for the management of the waterways of the union. Iruitiage by Mutes. Some of the states have already authorized the drainage of tho swamps and some have granted con cessions to that end. In the Yazoo basin a compuny had been organized and plai.s made to redeem in the neighborhood of half a million acres. Tho geological survey had prepared the maps which gave the basis of the working plans. Tho company was to capital ized and the organization ru undo that the bonds would be secured by the lands redeemed nnd all tho farms bo subject to the assessment for carrying on the work. The bonds were i.-suod at C per cent and the banks had agroed to tako them, when for some reason or other the bill was held up in the legislature and the work stopped. There are other schemes which ure going on in other states, and in Florida a large amount of land has been drained by various com panies, and especially by the Uisstons, who have tAen the water from huudrods of thousands of acres. Florida aud the Kveritluilex. And this brings me to the Everglades. The whole of Florida is a great bed of coral, upon the upper part of which a dense vegetation Las grown, forming the lands which now make the winter garden aud fruit patch of the eastern United btates. Lower Florida ia largely a swamp and there are so niuuy Offer Many Ita v, - . i. v ! .fvf i 'i- Afi fHi " LOGGED OFF LAND BnTOKL KET3DYAL oiuziro land for what he may see In the northwest Paclflo coast these statements are made. The climate in either Oregon or Washington Is lellghtful, especially in the coaBt counties, that of southern Oregon being slightly warmer than the northern part of Washington, although as far north as the beautiful city of lSellinghnm, if climate was for sale by the yard, it would be quoted at a high figure. Washington has the distinction of having during the last decade made the greatest gains in per cent of population (120 per cent) of any commonwealth in tho union, but now that the great railway systems have entered a race to see which shall be first to begin drawing from the interior, "Watch Oregon grow." Tho Boaver state haa but one really large city, Portland, known as the "Rose City," and, by the way. If tho roaders of Tho Bee want to spend one of the most delightful periods of their lives they should visit the Rose Festival In June. Honestly, one of these festivals almost equals the Alt-Sar-Ben doings in Omaha. Washington Has Best Cities. But speaking of cities, Washington has tho best of Oregon in this reBpect. First comes Seattle, and in July of thl3 year the city Is to give a show which will probably be made an annual affair. It will be is the Real Swamp Angel swamp lands scattered over the whole state that It has more marshes and morasses than any other part' of the union. It has altogether almost one-fourth of the swamps of the whole country, their area amounting to some thing like 20,000,000 acres, or to about as much' as the whole state of South Corolina. Some of these lands lie along the coasts and on the rivers; a part oi them contain great latfes like Okechobee, which measures three-quarters of a million acres and more. The Everglades, which are almost solid swamp, are at the south; they have a rim of mangrove trees and other vegetation which separate them from the sea, and it is said that if this rim is cut and canals are made the trai t can be drained. I am told, however, that there Is some question as to tho prospective value of the land w hen it is once redeemed. Some of the scientists say that it lacks mineral matter and that it is altogether humus; they say It would not hold the rainfall and would become as dry as sawdust after being drained. As to this, It is claimed that irriga tion could be given by Lake Okechobee; others assert that this eoII is rich In fertilizing materials. The Uisston drainage scheme was, as I understand it, Just north of tho Everglades; it resulted In the partial redemption of a largo tract of laud, but to not as much as was originally planned. Going north from Florida, there are vast tracts along our south Atlantic states which have been mapped aud which miht be redeemed. South Caro ltuu bus a large area of swamps and the same is true of North Carolina aud Virginia. On the eastern bor d r of the latter two states Is tiie Great Dismal Swamp, which alone contains more than 150,000 acres. The swamp begins a Utile south of Norfolk, Va., and extends southward across the boundary into North Carolina. The greater part of it is still covered with trees, although some of it has been drained and devoted to trucking. At one end of the swamp is Drummond lake, reached by the Jericho canal or ditch. There is alao a canal which runs through the Attractions "J1 f called the Potlatch, which la the Siwash term fo "heap big show," and this no doubt will be made a spectacular affair because Seattle never doea any thing in a half way manner. ' Only a short distance from Seattle Is Tacoma, famous for a hole dug in the rock called a Stadium, which will seat 26,000 people without the necessity, of one person sitting upon the lap of another. Ta coma lias about 100,000 inhabitants. Besides thesel two leading coast cities there are others prominent for their push, energy and get-thereitlveness. Aber deen and Hoquiam, two separately governed com- munlties but so closely connocted they are practically I one, are located on Gray's harbor, contain about 00,000 Inhabitants and are famous as the location of many wood-working and lumber manufactories. North of Seattle is Everett, the one-time terminus of the Great Northern railway, with probably 40,000 people and backed by the finest of agricultural country. Further north we find Belllngham, located on the bay of the same name with its 35,000 to 40,000 peo ple, the largest cement plant In the world and other industries too nurneroua to mentlon. Thus it can be seen that in the way of markets western Washington has rather an advantage over Oregon and this may be the reason why new land in the former state is held at a higher price than the same kind of land In Oregon. swamp connecting the Chesapeake bay with Albemarle sound. This canal was, I think, made by the original Dis mal Swamp company, which was organized by Georgo Washington, who believed that the swamp might be drained. It will thus be seen that the father of our country was really the father of the reclamation and conservation policies of the present. The Dismal Swamp and the great marsh lands which lie adjacent to it would be very profitable If they should be reclaimed; they are close to the water routes to Boston and New York and would be a winter vegetable garden for those cities and other parts of the north. Swamp Lands of the North. The swamp lands of the north aro of enormous extent and they are being reclaimed in many of the states. Some of the richest lands of northern Ohio were once under water; they ure now covered with orchards and farms and ure worth $100 and upward per acre. Wisconsin, which has enough swamps to drown the state of Connecticut or flood the whole Island of Porto Rico, has patches of soil reclaimed fiom the swamp which produce twenty tons of cab bages to tho acre. Illinois has wet spots fatter than her fattest cornfields, and Minnesota is doing un enor mous work in making dollars grow on its wet lands. Two Dollars ami Upward I'er Acre. As to the cost of these great reclamation schemes, tho geographers estimate that those of Minnesota would range all the way from 70 cents to f 4 per acre, and it is safe to say that there are many million acres in different parts of the country which could be drained for $2, while others miht cost as much as 'i0 per acre or more. Much of the draining can be done by gravity, and some, as in the tide marshes, will be controlled by flood gates and dikes. In other places there will have to be great pumping stations, anl in others, as in Holland, the windmills will aid In the work. As to this, I may write In the future. FRANK U. CARPENTER. h i i