Vol. LXIX. No. 4065 
NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 24, 1910. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PEP. YEAR 
IN EASTERN AND WESTERN CLEARINGS. 
Land on the Pacific Coast. 
Those who have pioneered in the forested regions 
of the Eastern States have had interesting experiences 
that will never be forgotten. The log-rollings; the 
smoke, grime and sweat of the burnings that fol¬ 
lowed ; and then the 
plowing among the 
stumps and roots and the 
planting of corn, potatoes 
and pumpkins in “the 
new ground,” have all 
made deep impressions 
on thousands of men 
and boys of several gen¬ 
erations. I can well re¬ 
member tbe replanting 
again and again, where 
the squirrels dug out 
the corn; scaring off the 
crows only to see them 
perch on tall trees far 
out of reach of my gun, 
to return to their mis¬ 
chief when I had got 
well out of sight. And 
after the long hot days 
spent in hoeing and 
plowing with the old 
“double shovel” which 
was then the latest im¬ 
proved farm implement; 
and when the frost was 
on the pumpkin vines 
and the corn was “in 
the shock,” the potatoes 
were yet to dig. After 
the last load was sorted 
ar.d in the cellar, the 
horses in the barn, cows 
milked, etc., the baked 
“ Xeshannocks ” wit h 
plenty of pork gravy 
over them and fresh 
backbone from the first 
butchering of the Fall, 
and all the mush and 
milk we could swallow, 
such a supper was really 
better than any meal 
eaten since in the best 
hotels from the Atlantic 
to ihe Pacific. Those 
were days that -will live 
in the memory, bright 
and endearing, of the 
soil, like that of the 
loved father and mother 
who sleep beneath it. 
Last year when I was 
looking over the country 
that lies in between the 
northwest Washin gton 
Cascade Mountains and 
the waters of Puget 
Sound a far different 
phase of pioneer farming 
was seen The particular region where I was at that 
time is known as “the Skagit Flats.” There is not 
a better soil and climate for farming in all of North 
America, and I have seen about all of it. It is what 
geologists call a “coastal plain,” and is the wash from 
the mountain range through untold ages spread out 
over many miles to where it joins the tidal waves 
of the great landlocked harbor called Puget Sound. 
The soil is deep, rich and mellow, composed of sand, 
clay, some gravel and a generous proportion of 
humus. It is not far above tide water, and as it lies 
very level there are occasional seasons of Hoods 
from the melting snow in the mountains in Summer. 
These floods do some damage to crops, although very 
rarely. Much of this plain was originally covered 
A PILE OF STUMPS FROM FIFTEEN ACRES OF WESTERN LAND. Fig. 387. 
A NEW ENGLAND PASTURE TYPICAL OF MANY FARMS. Fig. 388.' 
with giant timber, mostly cedar ar.d fir, but this is 
now nearly all gone, having been logged ■ off among 
the first of any region tributary to the transportation 
of the Sound. It was then “logged off” land, but 
most of it has been cleared and now beautiful and 
immensely productive farms cover nearly the whole 
valley. They have splendid houses, barns and all 
needed farm buildings. There are some fruits grown 
on the Skagit Flats and they do very well, although 
this is not a part of the real fruit country we hear so 
much about in the Pacific Northwest, which lies, very 
largely, east of the Cascade Range. It is a farming 
country, devoted largely to oats and Timothy hay. 
But the clearing of this land is a monumental task, 
comparably so with the forests that originally covered 
it. I saw a short sec¬ 
tion of one fir tree that 
had actually furnished 
over 42,000 feet of sawed 
lumber. Some cedar 
trees were fully as large 
and stumps that I saw 
standing in fields were 
over eight feet in diam¬ 
eter. Nearly all the 
stumps there are cut 
very high, the firs from 
eight to 12 feet, to avoid 
their extremely pitchy 
butts. It is wonderful 
to an eastern vistor to 
see miles of these gigan¬ 
tic stumps, and makes 
him feel like cutting 
them down to make lum¬ 
ber. In some places they 
are being made into 
rosin and turpentine, 
which is greatly needed. 
And there are scattering 
trees and tall snags left 
and old logs and the 
tops of the trees that 
were cut down. The 
cost of clearing this 
land is something enor¬ 
mous. It is rare that the 
cost is less than $100 per 
acre and often much 
more. 
While on the farm of 
a friend near Mount 
Vernon I saw a stump 
pile that seemed worth 
making a picture of, so 
I did it, and the accom- 
paning illustration, Fig. 
387, shows one side of 
it. The size can be 
judged, to some extent, 
by the girl on the family 
horse, and it is not a 
small horse, either. The 
pile is about 65 feet high 
and over 100 feet wide 
at the base. It requires 
two years to dry out 
sufficiently to burn clean. 
My friend told me it was 
made on contract from 
15 acres of ground and 
cost $1,055. A donkey 
engine and steel cable 
was used to make it. 
Besides this outlay he 
spent over $1,000 on the 
same tract pulling out and burning the roots left by 
the contractor and filling the hole's. But the land was 
worth $500 per acre for farming, trucking and grow¬ 
ing fruit. The first crop was grown on it last year, 
1909, and the shocks of oats may be seen in the 
picture. 
As to horticultural crops.there, they grow wonder¬ 
fully, especially berries. It was just in raspberry sea- 
