i89o 
THE RURAL’ NEW-YORKER 
463 
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A GLIMPSE AT FRONTIER LIFE. 
We are indebted to Mr. B. F Johnson for the following 
extracts from a letter written by a friend who is “ roughing 
it ” in Washington. The writer is the same person who 
wrote some notes on California prospects last year : 
“ In a small supply store on the banks of the Skagit, at 
the mouth of the Cascade River, flowing from the Cascade 
Mountains, E. Stewart, formerly of Champaign, Illinois, 
and myself are holding forth. We are in the wilderness 
on unsurveyed Government land. Our post-office is 12 
miles off, and it has communication with the outer world 
once a week. We have a poor trail to travel over to hear 
from civilization. Now, I can almost hear you ask: 
* What are you up there for ?’ and I say, there is a mining 
excitement on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains, 
and the crowd have to pass this point, so we have estab¬ 
lished a supply store. We have succeeded in getting a 
steamboat to come here with our goods, but the regular 
trips of the boats end about 35 miles lower down the river. 
For the prospectors, squatters and Indian trade, we have 
no competition. There is a ferry, and 
since we started, a saloon and boarding 
house have been opened. There are no 
mills here, and all the buildings are of 
split cedar. Our store, shelving, bed¬ 
steads, tables, etc., etc., are of the same 
material, and our mattresses are of fine 
fir. The place is surrounded by moun¬ 
tains from 0,000 to 8,000 feet, snow-top 
ped, and not over two miles away in a 
direct line. The river has a swift cur¬ 
rent and is fresh from the mountains, so 
we have ice water running by our door 
the year round. The Indians, men, wo¬ 
men and children, bathe in this cold 
water and seem to enjoy it. The valley 
is quite narrow and mostly covered with 
large cedar and fir trees; the soil is a 
black, sandy loam, very productive after 
one gets it cleared and lets the sunlight 
in. The nights are cold and we sleep 
with heavy covering, therefore it is not 
a corn country. 
The wheat grown on the western slope 
of these mountains is not considered as 
good as that grown on the eastern side, 
but the oats and hay are remarkably 
good; the potatoes too are extra in yield and quality; garden 
vegetables generally do and keep well; as for fruit, this is 
not a peach country, but apples, pears, plums and prunes do 
well, and the finest cherries on the Pacific Coast are grown 
here. I do not think apple trees are long-lived, as they 
succumb to the moss that covers them. The moss affects 
apple more than cherry, prune, or pear trees. So much 
attention is not given to orchards here as in California. 
Small fruits of all kinds do well and no irrigation is needed. 
But agriculture must be developed very slowly, as the cost 
of clearing land is double the first cost of fine prairie land 
in Illinois, so a rancher builds his cabin, clears enough 
land to garden a little, cuts logs to float down the 
river to be sold to the saw-mills, and thus lives quite 
contentedly. 
In the fish season, fine salmon are abundant, and the 
Indians can catch fish any time during the year. They 
sell them to the whites who are not so skillful; thus 
skilled labor has its reward here. The woods abound with 
black bear and deer. The winter affords good opportunity 
to hunters to enjoy themselves. The snow is from one to 
two feet deep, and the weather is not very cold, so we have 
an agreeable winter climate, rather drier than that near 
the coast. We are 75 miles east from the Sound and our 
elevation is 300 feet above sea-level; we are 40 miles south 
of our northern boundry. Two railroads are heading 
eastward from the Sound and will cross the Skagit at this 
point, and follow up the Cascade, through the Cascade 
Pass into Eastern Washington, and thus make an outlet 
for lumber eastward and into the Washington prairie 
country. In return these will fetch the products of that 
country to us, besides opening up transportation facilities 
for some very rich mines that have been discovered in the 
Cascade Range. Thus the future prospects here are not in 
corner lots or water fronts, but in business of another 
nature. The Indians who have had possession here 
for a long time, are fast thinning out. Their 
burying grounds show their former religious teach¬ 
ing, as they all have the cross on the head-boards of 
the graves; but now they have no teachers. Their love for 
whisky is strong and is taken advantage of by the whites. 
The law in reference to selling whisky to them is a dead 
letter in this country in all places outside the larger 
towns. 
The early men, settlers or squatters, who came here, had 
to live alone, and many of them soon tired of that, and took 
to themselves Siwash wives, and thus the half-breeds 
are numerous. An Eastern man would be surprised to meet 
with many smart, intelligent men with squaws for wives. 
One advantage they have is that they don’t have to take 
them East to see relations or fix up fine houses and have a 
buggy and a bank account. The first cost is about $40 or 
$50 paid for the bride to her parents, and the squaws pay 
their expenses afterwards by work, for they can literally 
paddle their own canoes. As to the country’s health, it is 
very good, there is no malaria, still it is a damp country, as 
the moss on the trees shows. But I do not see nearly as 
many afflicted with rheumatism as one sees in the East or 
in California. During the past year all sorts of living was 
high, but as the country improves so as to supply home de¬ 
mand, prices will recede. As to the great growth of the 
river and coast towns, 1 have nothing to say. If I did I 
would be called a crank. Time will tell. But one thing is 
sure: the business must be immense to build up all the 
cities that are mapped out and being boomed; but as long 
as Eastern capital can be persuaded to come westward so 
long will real estate be lively, so we are masters of the sit¬ 
uation. No taxes or rents, no agents of any kind, no 
theaters, no circuses, no prayer meetings, no, not even 
Sundays here ; we have our freedom; but I think we shall 
enjoy the change to other things when it comes. 
I start to-morrow for Seattle with another party. We 
will take a canoe and float down the river which is run¬ 
ning fully six miles an hour. None but skillful canoe 
men can work a boat up it now. But later in the season 
when the water falls, more boating is done. It will be 
a year or two before we shall hear the railroad whistle. 
It will be welcome music for all who are living such an 
isolated life as ours, and when tourists come up here and 
see the magnificent scenery and enjoy the fish and game, 
you shall then hear the place lauded by writers in a way 
that will be worthy of the subject. The white women are 
very scarce in this section, and, in fact, our mode of living 
is more that of frontier life than I ever expected to exper¬ 
ience. But the settlers and miners are intelligent and 
JOHN GOULD’S NEW BARN. Fig. 173. 
offer the hospitality common to the first settlers of new 
places. But I must close and get dinner, as we run our 
store, lodging and cooking all in one room.” 
JOHN GOULD’S NEW BARN. 
This barn is shown at Figs. 173 and 174. By reference to 
the basement plan, Fig. 174, it will be seen that the stable 
for the cows is in the ell, and the silos and box-stalls in 
the upright building, which is the same size as the ell. 
The silos, 22 feet deep, reach the roof of the upright, but 
the silo doors allow the silage to fall to the basement floor 
on the same level as the cow stalls. The bam and the 
addition are utilized overhead for storing hay, straw, etc. 
The stables for the cows are wide and roomy, and provided 
with 11 windows, which make them as light and sunny as 
day itself. Two cows are chained in each of them in six- 
feet-four-inch stalls. There is a matched floor over the 
cow stalls, and eight feet above the floor, and 10 small 
ventilators carry off all bad air. The big iron tank on the 
basement floor holds water for four days’ drinking, and is 
supplied from a rock well, and a temperature of about 50 
degrees is maintained. 
The addition to the barn, 40 by 31 feet with IS-foot posts, 
is a balloon built frame, with a self-supporting roof, and 
was built ready to be painted, for $42.50, and is a thoroughly 
well built barn in every respect. The walls of this part 
are of matched lumber, doubled, with tarred paper be¬ 
tween, and it never freezes in the stable, the temperature 
there being rarely below 45 degrees. In The Rural of June 
7, an account of his stable management of cows was given 
and this might be referred to with profit in connection 
with the illustrations here given. 
ounces. Twenty four days later the same weighed 5% 
pounds, and August 15, 22 days later still, seven pounds 
one ounce. October 18, when the bird was six months and 
11 days old, its weight was 8% pounds. Another, of the 
same variety, hatched May 30, showed eight pounds four 
ounces when weighed October 30, five months from the 
day of hatching, making the average gain \% pound per 
month.” I will not discuss the gain in the weight the 
second and following months, though extraordinary, but 
will consider the period from April 7 to May 7—one month 
—at the end of which time the chick weighed one pound 
and six ounces (22 ounces). The average weight of the 
chicks at birth is ounce and the following ratio of gain 
is considered excellent when chicks are well fed and cared 
for : Chick at birth, 1% ounce ; at one week, two ounces; 
at two weeks, three ounces ; at three weeks, -i% ounces ; 
at four weeks, eight ounces. 
If 20 chicks are fed together they will not more than av¬ 
erage seven ounces each when four weeks old, and such av¬ 
erage is a high one. But as one chick only is mentioned in 
the Canadian experiment, let us take 
another view: we find that 100 chicks 
will eat as many quarts of food (grain) 
per day as they are weeks old. That is, 
the 100 chicks will consume one quart 
per day the first week, two quarts per 
day the second, three quarts the third, 
and so on to the tenth week, and that 
they usually double their weight every 
10 days. It is a very large chick that 
will weigh 1 % ounce at birth, and It is 
marvelcfus if it doubles its weight in a 
week, unless during the first week. 
While a duck when six weeks old can 
be made to increase a pound in One week, 
the greatest gain I have ever noticed 
in a chick is five ounces in a week, but 
not until after it was five weeks old. 
The next point to be considered is 
whether a chick can eat enough of dry 
food in a month to make 20 ounces’ gain. 
The first week it eats almost nothing 
comparatively. The adult fowl that eats 
as much as three ounces of grain per day 
has a good appetite, and consumes more 
than the average. I mention 20 ounces 
because the chick is allowed two ounces’ 
weight at birth. If we subtract the food appropriated 
by the body for warmth, and that devoted to growth, 
a large quantity will be voided. If we attempt to feed 
a chick 20 ounces of dry food in 30 days we will have 
quite a task. My experiments show that 100 chicks will 
not eat over 76 quarts of ground food, averaging 1}4 pound 
per quart, in one month, or about one pound per chick, 
and if it then weighs seven ounces it will be a large chick. 
The heaviest chicks I ever saw were two cockerels—a 
Plymouth Rock and a Houdan—which weighed, dressed 
but not drawn, two pounds when nine weeks old, and they 
were forced from the start. If it requires one pound of 
food per month for a chick, on the average (regularly and 
well fed) to make it weigh seven ounces when a month old, 
at the same ratio the chick that weighs 22 ounces at the 
same time must be compelled to eat over three pounds per 
month, or about three-quarters of a pound per week. 
Without any intention of reflecting on the statement of 
the Director of the Ottawa Station, I must say that I do 
not see how it is possible for a chick to eat enough food to 
make the gain mentioned in the time stated. I well 
understand how the average gain can be 1 % pound (28 
ounces) per month from May to October ; but it is during 
the first month—from April to May—when the chick is 
very small, that the gain is something marvelous. 
COMMENTS ON EXPERIMENT STATION WORK. 
« No. I. 
Startling Figures on Chicks. 
P. H. JACOBS. 
A recent report from the Canadian Experiment Farm 
(Ottawa) gives full details of experiments made in manag¬ 
ing poultry—both adults and chicks—the results obtained 
being extraordinary. The most surprising, however, is 
the statement in regard to the growth of chicks, from 
which the following extract Is taken: “ The growth made 
by chickens of different breeds is as follows : Plymouth 
Rocks—cockerel, hatched April 7, at one month weighed 
one pound six ounces : at two months, two pounds 15 
ounces; at three months and five days, four pounds two 
A LISTENER’S NOTES. 
New View of "Protection.”— Among the farmers 
with whom I am acquainted there seems to be quite a 
change in sentiment regarding the tariff. As between the 
plan of “reciprocity” proposed by Secretary Blaine and 
the essential features of the McKinley bill, most of the 
people with whom I talk are rather in favor of the former. 
Mr. Blaine’s idea, as I understand it, is to use the tariff to 
trade with. Take the tariff on sugar for example. Mr. 
Blaine would not remove it until the countries that sup¬ 
ply us with sugar agree to buy our goods or at least to give 
our merchants a chance to sell their merchandise in those 
countries. It is proposed to give the President power to 
negotiate with other Southern countries and remove the 
tariff on such and such an article when other countries are 
willing to make suitable trade concessions. Mr Blaine 
proposes this for South American countries entirely, but 
it would apply with even greater force to England or Ger¬ 
many. Many good “ protectionists ” believe in tnis theory. 
Everybody recognizes the fact that there are many of our 
industries which do not need " protection ” any longer. If 
as a method of "evening things up” this "protection” 
can be sold so that the price will go to those who need it 
most, who can rightfully object f This tariff is public 
property; it does not belong to private trade. It should 
be used to benefit those who need it most. These are some 
of the things that are said to me by men who have never 
before been willing to admit that any tariff change would 
be safe. " Don’t give the tariff away ; get an equivalent 
in trade for it,” is what they say. 
The "Spooner Bill.”— Readers of farm papers will 
remember the bill proposed last year by Senator Spooner 
of Wisconsin, to appropriate a large sum of money for the 
purpose of conducting farmers’ institutes under the 
general direction of the Department of Agriculture. For 
a time this measure was warmly discussed by prominent 
agriculturists, but of late we have heard nothing about it. 
As I wished to know what had become of this matter I 
