Pullman^ Washington 



solutely no gravel in it, clear down to the rock. It absorbs water more 

 rapidly, and holds more of it than any other soil known except peat. 

 Although the country is rolling, such a thing as washing of the soil is 

 unknown except occasionally where one sees small rill marks on hill- 

 sides that have been plowed and left bare in winter. The rains, which 

 practically all fall between September and June, are never torrential 

 in character like those of the Eastern states, and the water is absorbed 

 by the soil as it falls. The rains penetrate the soil to a depth Varj-ing 

 from eight to fifteen feet in the vicinity of Pullman, except in the 



Threshing on a Palouse Farm. 



draws, where it goes much deeper. It remains in this surface layer of 

 soil till removed by plant roots the next spring and summer. Occas- 

 ionally a field of grain has been sown after the spring rains were over, 

 and a fair crop grown with no other moisture than that stored up in 

 the soil at the time the seed was planted. There is certainly^no ex- 

 tensive area of land in the world that will hold water more tenaciously, 

 or in larger quantity, than the basaltic soils of this region. The 

 abundant crops grown here with practically no rain after the first of 

 July render this fact evident. 



