488 S 
6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
sSfsl 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. 
XX. 
MARY WAGER FISHER. 
In order to reach tbe great wheat-growing 
country of Eastern Washington, which lies 
between Walla Walla aud Dayton, aud in the 
adjacent country, we went by steamer up the 
Columbia River as far as The Dalles, and 
thence by rail to Dayton, which at present is 
the terminus of oue of the roads built and 
operated by the Oregon Railway aod Naviga¬ 
tion Company, which also owns and controls 
the railroad following the course of tbe Co¬ 
lumbia from Wallula Junction to Portland, 
over which run the car9 of the Northern Pa¬ 
cific Railroad, and it also owns the passenger 
steamers on the river. This O. R. aud N. Co. 
built its roads at great expense without a land 
grant, while the large grants of land made to 
theN. P. R. R. form a source of constaut irri¬ 
tation and grievance to a large part of the 
inhabitants of Washington Territory, and as 
this part is endeavoring to have the unearned 
grants forfeited and restored to the public do¬ 
main, and another part is in favor of the rail¬ 
road having the lands, tbe political interest 
and feeling of the day center chiefly in forfeit¬ 
ure aud nou-forfeilure. The N. P. R. R. has 
been promising for twenty years to build its 
road across the 
Cascade Moun¬ 
tains to Puget 
Sound, and upon 
this promise and 
agreement secured 
a large land grant 
of every alternate 
section for fortv 
miles on each side 
of its proposed 
route. The value 
of these lands in 
W estern W ashing- 
ton alone, exclu¬ 
sive of a lignite 
belt, is rated at 
$31,000,000. Mean¬ 
time this land, not 
having been earn¬ 
ed by the railroad 
company because 
of the non-con¬ 
struction of the 
road, has been a 
stumbling-block to 
settlers who could 
not buy it and ac¬ 
quire a good title, 
while some have 
settled upon it, 
and now fear that 
they will lose all 
the improvements 
they have made. 
A road across the 
mountains is great¬ 
ly required, as the 
two sections of the 
Territory are so 
different in cli¬ 
mate aud products 
that an easy and 
rapid transporta¬ 
tion is needed, and it is quite probable 
that such a road would have already been 
built if the N. P. R. R and its immense land 
grant had been out of the way. However, the 
people in the Territory are wide awake and 
alert to their best interests, aud the N. P. R. 
R. will undoubtedly have a lively time in 
keeping its grant, unless it speedily constructs 
this road. 
We spent a day at The Dalles, which is on 
the Oregon side of tbe Columbia River, and 
is quite a distributing point for tbe Eastern 
part of that State. It has a population of 
about 4.000, and is a town of considerable 
“renown.'’ chiefly because of the peculiarity 
of the neighborhood. “Dalles,” if 1 am not 
mistaken, is a French word for tlagstoues, and 
for two or more miles above the town, the 
river runs over and through a sort of table¬ 
land of basaltic rock, and in one place it is 
compressed to so narrow a stream between 
these two rocks, as to be said to be “on edge” 
—and that a man can almost jump across it. 
Of course, it is very deep and runs with great 
velocity in this confined bed. These plateaus 
of rock rise in tuauy places above the water, 
and largely conceal it, presenting a curious 
surface of large flat rock intersected with 
water, and this rocky formation exteuds, in 
part, over and about the locality in which the 
town is built, a most barren, rocky, sondy, 
volcanic, uninviting place. The town itself 
is not destitute of grass aud trees; but it did 
not impress me as beiug an attractive place, 
beyond its curiousness, and notwithstanding 
that it commands a fine view of Mounts Hood 
and Adams, always white with “ eternal 
snows.” 
About a mile from the town, in a very 
narrow valley along a small stream called 
Mill Creek, a considerable quantity of fruit is 
raised. One of these fruit farms bad been 
represented to us as consisting of several 
thousand trees, and we walked over the 
“mountains” to tbe west of the town to visit 
it. Our route led us through a camp-meeting 
ground, in a grove of pines, where the reli¬ 
gious sect called “Adventists” were holding a 
meeting From what I have seen and read of 
this sect here, I judge that it is strong in 
numbers, very active in tbe propagation of 
its faith, untiring in the dissemination of its 
literature, and quite a “religions power’’ on 
this coast, where probably every creed and 
“ism” has its advocates. We found Mi\ D—, 
the owner of the large orchard, in an apple 
house which he was building, and he was 
kind enough to show us his trees, tell us his 
methods of cultivation and volunteer con¬ 
siderable other information. He said he was 
from Kentucky,and had lived on his place 
for thirty years. In regard to the climate he 
said it was very cold iu Winter a,t long inter¬ 
vals—the mercury going 15° below zero and 
freezing the peach trees; but these extremes 
of weather were rare. Apple aud peach 
trees begiu to bear at three years of age, and 
it requires much care to keep off the fruit un¬ 
til the trees are older. Last Winter the cold 
killed peach and nectarine trees: hut they are 
planted, and the light, sandy soil was 
loose aud open, as if newly sifted. As we 
made our way among the trees, it was 
to tbe march of inward and outward 
ejaculations of “Never saw I such a sight 
before”—and it was indeed true. I used to 
think my father’s fruit orchards in Central 
New York very flne; but this Oregon orchard 
opened before my eyes like a miracle, a won¬ 
derful sight ever to be remembered—thous¬ 
ands of bushels of beautiful apples, and alas! 
hundreds of bushels “going to waste.” Mr. D. 
complained of the lack of markets for his 
fruits—that if railway freights were only 
reasonably low, he could And markets in Da¬ 
kota. Montana, and Minnesota—as they were, 
it did not pay him to ship even a car-load at 
a time. He kept hogs, and he had a cider- 
mill, but, withal, the waste of fruit anmially 
was enormous. He quite loaded us down with 
choice apples and pears, which we greatly 
enjoyed for several days. Abundant and 
cheap as apples were throughout all that re¬ 
gion, we found none cooked in any way—ex¬ 
cept in “pie ’—at any of the hotels we were 
at; but when we bad traveled north into 
Washington, where in the towns apples cost 
five cents a pound (they retail by tbe pound) 
we had stewed apples on the table, and bow 
delicious they tasted! How general is the 
stupidity that ignores the common blessings, 
which, all in all, are the best. In going to 
and from the orchards we found many beauti¬ 
ful wild flowers. The wild sage, iu full bloom, 
formed a rival in its yellow clusters to the gay 
from all liability—of course the courts don’t 
allow such things,but the people are thus bull¬ 
dozed. Roads are bad, and grain is very low. 
More than usual is bpiug fed. aud at present 
prices it seems as if there would be a profit¬ 
able season for feeders. Corn at 20 cents and 
cattle at five cents show a big margin to the 
feeder, but there are several chances of t he two 
articles coming nearer together in price. J. b. 
Wisconsin. 
Neenah, Winnabago Co.—We had a very 
nice Fall for work—as flne as I ever saw. 
Crops of all kinds were good in this part; 
but prices are low. Wheat is worth from 65 
to 70 cents; oats, 25cents; corn, 35 to 40 cents; 
potatoes, 25 cents. 
F. W. 
The Rural du ring the past season crossed 
60 different kinds of Indian Corn—the best 
and earliest strains of the entire country. 
An assortment will be sent out in its present 
Seed Distribution to subscribers 
RURAL SEED REPORTS. 
^_ 
White Victor. Fig. 12. (Ses Supplement, page 10.) 
quickly raised again. He keeps the soil in his 
orchards open by plowing, and waters them 
once the first year after planting. He said he 
thought the bill-sides better for fruit thau the 
valleys. The adjoining farm of IK) acres 
sold for $6,000. He thought the best 
fruit land lay between the Des Chutes 
and Hood Rivers, aud designated a farm of 
246 acres, without improvements, which could 
be bought for $3,500. He claimed that as 
good grupes could be raised on bis farm as in 
California, excepting the “Mission” Grape—a 
choice fruit introduced iuto California by the 
Jesuit priests. He had a bunch of Flarnme de 
Tokay which weighed eight pounds, and he 
mentioned apples as weighing 2}-^ pouuds, 
and strawberries grew to the size of applesl 
He thought the country as good for raising 
horses us California. Lime camedown in the 
rain—all the lime needed for the products of 
the soil! He claimed that the water was ex¬ 
cellent, aud brought us some to drink from a 
spring, but I did uot like it. neither was the 
water on the hotel tables good, and it was 
drawn from the beautifully clear Columbia 
River. 
Because of the lateness of the season, tbe 
only fruits saw were pears and apples, 
but tbe sight of these iu tbe great orchard 
was altogether marvelous. In nearly every 
instance tbe branches of the trees were 
propped up, and where they were not, the 
trees were broken down or the limbs fairly 
lay on the ground—some of them actually did 
so—for support. The trees were closely 
plumes of our golden rod. If many of our 
common blessings were rare, they would be 
much more justly appreciated. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Ktnsu, 
F ARSONS, Labette Co., Kansas.—We are 
now having our first suow storm, the snow 
being 41^ inches deep, with a temperature of 
14°. being the lowest of this Winter thus far. 
Cattle have existed on hay and grain exclu¬ 
sively for only ten days, the Fall haviug been 
quite unusually protracted. Business of all 
lcicds seems bad,and prices.like the thermom¬ 
eter, have been gradually sinking for months. 
We suffer excruciation from railroad freights. 
On your side of the Mississippi a bushel of 
corn is carried a thousand miles for from six 
to 14 cents; here we pay 14 cents per bushel 
all the time for 500 miles, aud manv poiuts 
pay more. Merchandise that is carried from 
New York to Chicago for about 10 cents per 
100 pounds, has about 50 cents added thereto 
from Chicago here. Regarding passenger 
rates, everybody that can pay hi< fare has a 
free pass; everybody that is too poor to pay 
has to remain where he is under all circum¬ 
stances, hence we are told that railroads can 
uot carry passengers at less than three cents 
per mile. A steam engine that costs five 
hundred dollars, costs in freight $100 for 350 
miles, besides haviug to be loaded and un¬ 
loaded by the owner. Freight, except at pro¬ 
hibitory rates, is carried by the railroads un¬ 
der a contract which exempts the railroad 
Canada. 
Falkland, Ontario.—The Rural seeds did 
well with me except the oats; thev rusted so 
badly that I did not cut them ; but the Wel¬ 
come Oat® alongside were free from rust; but 
my New Zealand Oats vielded as much again 
as the Welcome, aud the Epyptian Oats will 
out-yield them all. Tbe Blush Potatoes are 
good; but the Elephant beats them. t. a. 
Dakota. 
Raymond, Clark 
Co., Dec. 8.—If 
everything in this 
year’s Seed Dis¬ 
tribution was not 
ft bonanza, I can 
at least say the 
tomato seed was. 
I had bought a 
package of my fa¬ 
vorite,the“Acme,” 
from a first-class 
seed house in St. 
Paul, and sowed 
them in a frame 
for my main crop, 
and a small quan¬ 
tity of yours as an 
experiment. The 
Acme never ger¬ 
minated even on a 
second sowing, 
whereas every seed 
of yours did. Such 
being the case, I 
sowed tbe whole of 
yours and planted 
them out as they 
came along. From 
the very first I 
saw I had got 
something, and 
took some little 
trouble to help 
them along. They 
grew nice, large, 
healthy plauts.and 
bore the largest 
amount of toma¬ 
toes I have ever 
seen. The plants 
were literally 
weighted down 
with fruit, and the quality was also exception¬ 
ally good. Not only were they very large, but 
they were finely formed, as smooth as an 
apple, and the flavor of them, when cooked, 
still lives with a kindly feeling iu my remem¬ 
brance. I gave away some 50 plants, sold 
about tbree dollars’worth of fruit, and 1 have 
pickled and preserved as many of them as 
will keep me going till the fruit from the uext 
Seed Distribution comes round. All this and 
your valuable paper for a whole year are 
surely value for two dollars. I. m. 
Indiana. 
Beech Grove. Main Co.—I planted R. N.- 
Y. Peas on April 5th; they were fit for the 
table in 60 days—several days ahead of our 
other early peas. Horsford’s was planted and 
promised well, but were destroyed by chick¬ 
ens. Rural Union Corn was planted June 
7th; there was uot enough rain from the time 
it was planted till it was gathered, yet it 
yielded well aud matured. The Black Cham¬ 
pion Oats are too laie. The Diehl Meditera- 
nean Wheat was planted this Fall; did not 
grow well; manv graius were badly shriveled. 
Tomatoes splendid. Flowers lovely. 
F. c. m’c. 
New Hampshire. 
Milford, Hillsborough Co.—The R. N.-Y. 
Pea, planted May 15tb, was in bloom June 
16th, and gathered ripe Horn July 22nd to 
August 6th. Planted 61 peas; 42 grew ; 261 
pods; 1,290 peas H. M. G Pea, planted May 
15th, was in bloom June 18th, and gathered 
