117 



tations. To this list of agricultural productions we may also add all sorts of manu- 

 factures — sash, doors, window blinds, furniture, wagons, carriages, hubs, spokes, felloes, 

 bows, hames, ax-helves, auger-handles, ox-yokes and bows, and almost everything you 

 can name. 



Mechanical labor is worth from $3 to $5 per day; farm labor from $18 to $25 per 

 month ; day laborers in town want from ftl to $2 per day. With cotton 11 to 12 cents 

 as the base for these prices, you may well conclude we are fiiirly on the road to ruin. 

 When I add that potatoes are worth $1 50 and turnips $1 per bushel ; eggs, 25 to 50 

 cents per dozen ; fowls, 35 to 50 cents apiece ; cabbages, 25 to 75 cents i^er head; and 

 a handful of greens a dime, you may judge there is great need for some oue to make 

 endeavors to have these things produced at home. A dish of strawberries and milk for 

 a family of six, say a half-gallon of each, would not cost less than §1 50 to $2. 



WASHINGTON TEREITOKY. 



Our correspondent in Pierce County, Washington Territory, writes as 

 follows : 



Washington Territory contains, in round numbers, seventy thousand square miles, 

 with a great variety of soil, climate, and resources. In this vast region there are less 

 than twenty-tive thousand inhabitants. The Cascade Monutaius extend northward 

 from Columbia River, which forms the southern boundary of the Territory, to the forty- 

 ninth parallel of latitude, and beyond into British Columbia. The Territory is thus 

 divided into two equal parts ; that east of this mountain range being principally a 

 prairie country, with extensive grazing grounds, and rich valleys of arable land ; while 

 the portion west of the mountains is in the main timbered lands; yet it too is inter- 

 sected by many valleys, with fertile alluvial bottoms. 



The climate of these two divisions differs as widely as the soil and exposure, the 

 eastern being in the winter comparatively dry and cold ; the western, warm and rainy. 

 In the eastern region the autumn and winter are so dry that the rich bunch grass of 

 the Great Columbia plain will actually cure upon the ground, and remain valuable 

 feed, lasually enabling the cattle to fatten on the grazing grounds, even during the 

 winter. But on the western slope these seasons are so moist and temperate, that the 

 turnip and the grass commonly grow until the middle of December, and frequently 

 in sheltered places the green grass may be seen all winter. In this division cattle 

 usually require feeding and shelter from the winter storms, but never for more than 

 two or three months. 



To speak more particularly of the western division, the northern portion is known 

 as the Puget Sound basin, and the southern as the Chehalis and Cowlitz Valleys. The 

 surface is covered with magnificent forests of evergreen, consisting mainly of the fir, 

 of which there are three varieties. There is found also the white cedar, the hemlock, 

 the spruce, and, in the bottoms, balm or cottonwood, alder, maple, ash, and crab-apple. 



This is emphatically a dairy district. The growth of grass upon these rich lands is 

 almost constant, and the yield is enormous. There is si)ring water, pure and soft, and 

 abundantly distributed. Add to this the cool nights, and few hot days, and it makes all 

 that is desirable for the successful development of this great interest. 



Twelve rivers have their sources upon the western slope of the Cascade. Range, and 

 these, with a current rapid at first, but afterward more gentle, deposit rich alluvial 

 wash as they reach the sound. These alluvial bottoms will average two miles in width, 

 while on the adjacent table lands there is a larger area of soil suitable for grass. 



After the magnificent forests, the wonder of this region is its climate. Avera.ging 

 40° Fahrenheit during the winter, and 63^ in the summer, and this up to the forty- 

 ninth parallel, it is not strange tliat people are incredulous when they hear of this 

 mild climate. In winter the south and southwest winds prevail, and these, with the 

 warm ocean current of the Pacific, corresponding to the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, 

 give the western coast of the American continent a climate which rivals that of the 

 western shores of Europe. 



With resources so numerous and varied ; with coal underlying the whole district, 

 iron ore in the mountains, limestone upon two of the islands in the sound, with an 

 inexhaustible store of the most excellent ship-building material, and with the exten- 

 sive and valuable fisheries of the northwest coast, we may look forward with confi- 

 dence to the development of a great country on this coast of the American continent. 



STOCK IN IDAHO. 



Ada County, Idalio Territory. — Experience is rapidly demonstrating 

 tlie fact that Idaho possesses natural facilities and advantages for the 

 cheap and successful growing of stock of all kinds not snri^assed in any 



