302 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



and throughout all of the state east of the Cascades. Many mutual farm 

 ditches are in use in Yakima, Kittitas, Asotin and other eastern counties 

 and the spirit of irrigation is extending to all sections within the semi- 

 arid boundary. Artesian wells are numerous and small streams are util- 

 ized almost everywhere, especially where gardens or orchards are de- 

 sired. The mist and dews from the Japan current or Chinook winds 

 furnish some moisture in favored spots, but do not reach all sections. 



Washington has fifty cities and towns, with population ranging from 

 300 to 50,000 people, and numerous villages, ranches and country dis- 

 tricts. The inhabitants are thrifty, honest and typical westerners, en- 

 gaged in farming, mining, manufacturing, fishing, lumbering and gen- 

 eral vocations incidental to these industries. Nearly every part of the 

 thirty- three county divisions is reached by railroads or steamers on the 

 rivers or ocean. There are almost 3,000 miles of railroad in the state, 

 being 75 miles to every 10,000 population. The railway mileage, accord- 

 ing to number of inhabitants, is exceeded by only nine states in the 

 Union, thus showing that capitalists have not hesitated in placing in- 

 vestments in Washington. Every market is easily and quickly reached, 

 and the farmer has the advantage of inland trade, through the trunk 

 railway lines of the Oregon Short Line and Northern Pacific and branches, 

 and the waterways of the world on the great Pacific steamers. Not less 

 than fifteen hundred vessels touch Puget Sound yearly and carry away 

 five million dollars worth of products of lumbering, fishing, farming and 

 manufacturing. 



Irrigation is possible and practicable in all the fourteen counties 

 that make up eastern Washington, and wherever applied, has produced 

 most astonishing results over the mist and dew farming. Opportunities 

 for canal construction, reservoir building, and artesian well sinking are 

 numerous, and some excellent works have been completed. One of the 

 more recent enterprises is that of Vineland in the Lewiston Valley, in 

 Asotin county, where the desert has been converted into an almost semi- 

 tropical paradise by the application of water through a corporation canal. 

 This valley is less than 100 feet above sea level and has many possibili- 

 ties in fruit growing and truck farming yet undeveloped. In central 

 Washington the thriving city of Ellensburgh stands out as an oasis in 

 the desert, a perpetual monument to the handiwork of irrigation, in re- 

 deeming the native land from its primitive aridity and making it produce 

 abundantly of the fruits of the field, orchard and vineyard. North Ya- 

 kima, Walla Walla, Palouse City and other equally important points of 

 eastern Washington, are surrounded by evidences of prosperity induced 

 by irrigation. 



According to the official census reports for 1890, Washington had 

 18,056 farms, of which 16,529 were cultivated by actual owners, and 

 986 rented for part of the crops grown. The small farm ratio is increas- 

 ing very rapidly, and at this enumeration, there were 1,236 farms of less 

 than 50 acres, 1,715 having over 50 and less than 100 acres, and 13,907 



