Home-making by the Government 



265 



more generous returns for the labor em- 

 ployed than the Yakima Valley. I have 

 never dared to tell . Easterners what I 

 really know to be true about the crop 

 yields. Some of the views will give you 

 an idea of the intensive farming prac- 

 ticed there. 



Among the wealth producers the apple 

 orchards take a high rank. Full-bearing 

 orchards produce frequently from $300 

 to $1,200 per acre annually. It can be 

 stated that $300 is less than the average 

 for all well-kept orchards. The fruit 

 grown here is attractive, sound, and ships 

 well. Its market is New York and 

 Europe, and the commission men are so 

 eager for the crop that it is often con- 

 tracted for in advance. Orchard lands 

 sell for from $300 to $2,000 per acre, de- 

 pending on location and condition of 

 trees. The pear crop is very profitable, 

 and peaches and grapes do well. A large 

 area is in hops, and the yields here are so 

 generous that I am told Yakima is driving 

 New York out of the hop-growing 

 business. 



The Yakima Indians find employment 

 in the hop fields during the picking sea- 

 son, and usually camp just outside the 

 fields. Alfalfa is another money-maker, 

 producing from 6 to 8 tons per acre, 

 worth on an average of $5 per ton in the 

 stack. In 1907 the Yakima Valley 

 shipped fruit to the value of $1,125,000. 

 Its hay crop was worth $2,000,000 ; po- 

 tatoes, $250,000 ; onions, $50,000, and 

 hops, $200,000, a total of farm products 

 of $3,625,000. Sixty-five thousand cattle 

 and 20,000 sheep were ranged and fed 

 in this valley in 1907, valued at about 

 $2,000,000. 



Ten and 20 acre farms are common in 

 this valley, and this has brought about 

 compact rural settlements along the irriga- 

 tion canals. In turn there has followed a 

 gradual improvement in social conditions, 

 with the elimination of the isolation of 

 farm life, which has in itself proven such 

 an important factor in swinging the pen- 

 dulum of population from the farm to the 

 town. The luxuries of town life are en- 

 joyed in a measure by the farmer, who at 

 the same time lives a life of freedom in 

 the open. 



When the works on this section are 

 completed the Yakima Valley will be- 

 come one of the show places of the coun- 

 try. Over a greater portion of the ir- 

 rigable area the farms will not exceed 20 

 acres in area, and we may look for a pop- 

 ulation of 250,000 in this favored region 

 in the not distant future. Fully devel- 

 oped, the taxable property should have a 

 value of not less than $70,000,000, mak- 

 ing it one of the richest agricultural dis- 

 tricts in the world. 



The area which can be reclaimed is 

 nearly double that which is now irrigated 

 in Southern California. A splendid part 

 of the life in the Yakima Valley is that 

 one can live out of doors so much of the 

 year. The same share of clear skies and 

 dry air that makes Southern California so 

 attractive is enjoyed in Washington. The 

 valley is on the main line of the Northern 

 Pacific and the new line of the Chicago, 

 Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway now 

 building. 



OKANOGAN PROJECT, WASHINGTON 



The Okanogan country lies about half 

 in British Columbia and half in the 

 United States. Owing to its remarkable 

 climate this valley has been called the 

 California of the Northwest. The Rec- 

 lamation Service has nearly completed 

 an interesting engineering work here to 

 reclaim 8,000 acres. The land is very 

 fertile and, owing to the exceptionally 

 favorable climate, a wide variety of 

 products, many of which are high priced, 

 are produced. Frost has never injured 

 the fruit in the valley in which this work 

 is located, and there has never been a 

 failure with apples, peaches, plums, 

 prunes, apricots, pears, cherries, necta- 

 rines, grapes, and all the varieties of 

 small berries grown in the United States. 

 The nearest railway town is Wenatchee, 

 on the Great Northern, from which place 

 steamboats ply daily up the Columbia to 

 Brewster, and thence by stage 28 miles 

 to Okanogan, a town of 400 inhabitants. 



UMATILLA PROJECT, OREGON 



The Umatilla project, in northeastern 

 Oregon, when compared in area with 

 many others now under construction, 



