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70L. LX3V INDIANAPOLIS JAN. 30, 1G09 NO 5 More About Washington. By Geo. S. Cottman. I,et no man who has built up a home mid is doiug fairly well in Indiana be deluded by the notion that there is some- it here else a laud of milk and honey where he can do thrice as well. The country is fairly flooded with boom literature from south, west and north which dwells in superlative terms upon the wonderful soil, the delightful climate and the dazzling opportunities of the various sections. The truth seems to be that when God created the earth he made few sections that did not have some merits, and the business of the land boomer is to make the most of these merits. His sins of omission yon discover when you (To in person. If the soil is fertile you hnd that advantage more than cancelled by remoteness from markets and inadequate transportation. The "delightful (limate," more than likely, takes all the energy out of you and has diseases i e- ouliar to itself; aud in spite of the alluring profits per acre which the boom literature proved by "facts and figures," >uu find people just as poor and working just as hard as back home. It may be set down as certain that you will find drawbacks more or less serious which the boomers have scrupulously failed to hint of. I spent ii season once in the famous 'Land of the Sky," among the mountains of North Carolina. As a place to go fur one's health it was worthy of its fame but as a place wherein to live and do business it was a country victimized by one railroad. This road, having all the transportation in its own hands, did what it pleased, when it pleased and as it pleased. I have seen meat, which left -Asheville fresh, delivered at a station 1" miles away after it was spoiled, and I have seen boxes of fruit and other edibles riiled of half their contents by the train crews. An Indianapolis man who went into the lumber business down there was fairry driven out because of the miserable and neglectful transportation service on this road. This being victimized by transportation lines is not the least of the evils that beset the man who goes into a new country to make a living. I knew a man who tried apiculture down in Arizona. He went into that business intelligently and succeeded so far as getting honey was concerned, but when it came to getting his honey to market, he simply could not do it. When the railroad had him at its mercy it offered him a ruinously low price for his output. He quit the business. Another man who had a plantation in eastern Florida told me that what with transportation difficulties, and the handicaps imposed by others who handled his fruits, he gave up the whole business in disgust and now only uses his place as a winter resort. But all this is discursive. What I started out to say was that the Pacific coast states are now in the midst of an energetic and contagious boom. Of California, I know little, but every town 01 any size, seemingly, from southern Oregon to northern Washington has its commercial club that will, on the slightest provocation, fire at you by mail its Pamphlet setting forth in glowing terms tfie advantages that make its particular •"cality the pick spot of earth. As a matter of fact it is doubtful whether any other section of the Union now in tlie loom business can offer as many advantages as do tliese two states, and it is not the purpose of this letter to decry them. They are, I believe, destined to a great future; but here, as elsewhere, what the real estate men and other interested parties say is only part of the truth. In a previous letter I spoke of the magnificent fruit display on permanent exhibit iu the Chamber of Commerce at Spokane. The actual products of Washington as shown side by side, like the lean aud fat in a slice of bacon. In walking over a twenty-acre tract on a crisp morning. I have noted spots where there was scarce any evidence of frost, and others where the ground bristled with crystals of ice. Within a radius of half a mile from my place there are soils and subsoils ranging from vegetable muck to sand, from sand lo hnrdpan. and what does well in one field is no indication of what will thrive in the next. A limited region here about is adapted to the Concord and kindred A Transportation System that is not yet Entirely out of Date. here and at the fruit fairs are apt to have a rather intoxicating effect upon the visitor who is not quite content with smaller results elsewhere; but there is another side that it is well to know. On my way from Spokane to Seattle I passed through the famous Wenatchee country, which is now being extensively advertised as the ideal home of the apple, and where land is now being sold, I believe, at fancy prices. The chief part of the crop was then gathered, but the trees that were still laden with apples to the breaking point showed what the soil here- is capable of. A narrow, irrigated strip along the Columbia river was, perhaps, all that the boomers claimed, but of the desolation that hemmed it in the boom literature said never a word. The settled lands were little oases, green and pleasant to look upon, but the dreary treeless, rocky lands, bearing no sign of life and no vegetation save the gray, ashen sage-brush, ran away on every hand to the farthest limit-of vision, making a dreary desert picture not to be forgotten. Along the roads the pulverized dust, shoe-mouth deep, arose in clouds with every passing foot, and the whole dun landscape seemed powdered with dust. Nature, as if by a law of compensation, has stored this unpromising soil with latent elements of rare fruit- fulness; but he who lives here and converts these elements into a golden harvest must pay the price. Washington is, perhaps, one of the "spottiest" countries on earth. Fertile soil and sterile, warm soil and cold, lie varieties of grapes, while over the hills 0 mile or two away, they do no good. A lriend of mine in eastern Washington writes me of.a tract being boomed there as "natural fruit land, and the home of the apple." All this is based upon one bearing orchard on the top lands adjoining, the tract itself being black lowland. According to my correspondent, this rich, fine-appearing soil is underlaid by an alkali subsoil that is fatal to fruitage though the trees may grow and seem ta be thriving. As hundreds of small tracts have been sold to buyers who built their little homes and set out orchards, in anticipation of future profits, there would seem to be something of the tragic in their faith. All of which goes to show that the homeseeker in this country who is a stranger to its conditions, runs a perfect gauntlet of risks, against which a word of warning should be uttered. This does not mean that I would advise one to keep away from Washington. On the contrary 1 repeat what I said before that no boom section in the country can offer more advantages than this—only let no one be lured by the bait, so often used, of five or six hundred dollars annual profit off of each acre of land owned. The probabilities are that your profit will not exceed what your industry and capacity can create in Indiana. In a later letter, if this proves of interest, I may have more to say of the attractions of Washington as I have observed them. Ceo. S. Cottman. Vaughn, Wash., Jan. 14. Our Agricultural Wealth. According to the report of Secretary Wilson recently issued, it is indeed very 1 ard for anyone to talk of the down trodden farmer, and some question whether it is really needful for the Government to engage in the uplift business on behalf of the agriculturist. During the last year the farm value of all farm productn reached the extraordinary total of $7,- 778,000,000—four times the value of the products of the mines, including mineral oils and precious metals. It would take eight billion dollar Congresses to dispose of this sum. In other words, enough money is now extracted out of the farms of thecountry in a year to pay forrunniug the Government for eight consecutive years. Broadly speaking the farmers of the country are better off this year than in previous years in two respects; the crops are better than the average and the prices are much higher. It is not so much, however by reason of increased production this year that the farmers are better eff as it is because of high prices. And yet, with all the allurements of such wealth on farms, the Government officials have found it necessary to step in to establish a remedy whereby country 1'fe may be made so pleasant as to keep the boys and girls on the farm, and not turn to the enchanting lights and witchcraft of the city, where as clerks, their s; iaries of $10 and $12 a week, and little cubby holes for lodging, are the reward, instead of pure food, pure air and pure en vironments of the country. The temptation to leave the country is great, but the awakening is sad. s s» s Wants Quick Pasture. Editors Indiana Farmer: I have a field that was planted to corn last year that I would like to sow in something that will make pasture this coming summer. I also want to sow this feld iu bluegrass or something that will make a permanent pasture. Any advice you can give me will be thankfully received. C. F. A. —You cannot expect much pasture next summer from anythiug you can sow in the spring. You should have sown rye or vetch last fall. They would have made some good forage in May. If your soil is fertile, clover will give some good pasture in late summer. Sow quite early, about 12 pounds per acre. Oats might help you out. Important Bills. A bill will be presented before the House for the enactment of an inheritance tax law. It provides for a graduated scale of income tax depending upon the degree of the relationship of the beneficiaries and the amount of property involved. Two bills were introduced in the Senate for the protection of game, and fish, and a third fixes a penalty for those who hunt and fish on private grounds without permission. A bill for the adolition of the open season on quail for a period of five years was introduced. Also a bill making it unlawful to fish in any of the streams from February 1 to June 15, but not including the lakes. Our Indiana Farmer's Account Books are still in good demand, and we are filling orders for them on the day they are received. A copy ought to be in the desk of every farmer; price only 25 cents.
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1909, v. 64, no. 05 (Jan. 30) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA6405 |
Date of Original | 1909 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-02-03 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript | 70L. LX3V INDIANAPOLIS JAN. 30, 1G09 NO 5 More About Washington. By Geo. S. Cottman. I,et no man who has built up a home mid is doiug fairly well in Indiana be deluded by the notion that there is some- it here else a laud of milk and honey where he can do thrice as well. The country is fairly flooded with boom literature from south, west and north which dwells in superlative terms upon the wonderful soil, the delightful climate and the dazzling opportunities of the various sections. The truth seems to be that when God created the earth he made few sections that did not have some merits, and the business of the land boomer is to make the most of these merits. His sins of omission yon discover when you (To in person. If the soil is fertile you hnd that advantage more than cancelled by remoteness from markets and inadequate transportation. The "delightful (limate," more than likely, takes all the energy out of you and has diseases i e- ouliar to itself; aud in spite of the alluring profits per acre which the boom literature proved by "facts and figures," >uu find people just as poor and working just as hard as back home. It may be set down as certain that you will find drawbacks more or less serious which the boomers have scrupulously failed to hint of. I spent ii season once in the famous 'Land of the Sky," among the mountains of North Carolina. As a place to go fur one's health it was worthy of its fame but as a place wherein to live and do business it was a country victimized by one railroad. This road, having all the transportation in its own hands, did what it pleased, when it pleased and as it pleased. I have seen meat, which left -Asheville fresh, delivered at a station 1" miles away after it was spoiled, and I have seen boxes of fruit and other edibles riiled of half their contents by the train crews. An Indianapolis man who went into the lumber business down there was fairry driven out because of the miserable and neglectful transportation service on this road. This being victimized by transportation lines is not the least of the evils that beset the man who goes into a new country to make a living. I knew a man who tried apiculture down in Arizona. He went into that business intelligently and succeeded so far as getting honey was concerned, but when it came to getting his honey to market, he simply could not do it. When the railroad had him at its mercy it offered him a ruinously low price for his output. He quit the business. Another man who had a plantation in eastern Florida told me that what with transportation difficulties, and the handicaps imposed by others who handled his fruits, he gave up the whole business in disgust and now only uses his place as a winter resort. But all this is discursive. What I started out to say was that the Pacific coast states are now in the midst of an energetic and contagious boom. Of California, I know little, but every town 01 any size, seemingly, from southern Oregon to northern Washington has its commercial club that will, on the slightest provocation, fire at you by mail its Pamphlet setting forth in glowing terms tfie advantages that make its particular •"cality the pick spot of earth. As a matter of fact it is doubtful whether any other section of the Union now in tlie loom business can offer as many advantages as do tliese two states, and it is not the purpose of this letter to decry them. They are, I believe, destined to a great future; but here, as elsewhere, what the real estate men and other interested parties say is only part of the truth. In a previous letter I spoke of the magnificent fruit display on permanent exhibit iu the Chamber of Commerce at Spokane. The actual products of Washington as shown side by side, like the lean aud fat in a slice of bacon. In walking over a twenty-acre tract on a crisp morning. I have noted spots where there was scarce any evidence of frost, and others where the ground bristled with crystals of ice. Within a radius of half a mile from my place there are soils and subsoils ranging from vegetable muck to sand, from sand lo hnrdpan. and what does well in one field is no indication of what will thrive in the next. A limited region here about is adapted to the Concord and kindred A Transportation System that is not yet Entirely out of Date. here and at the fruit fairs are apt to have a rather intoxicating effect upon the visitor who is not quite content with smaller results elsewhere; but there is another side that it is well to know. On my way from Spokane to Seattle I passed through the famous Wenatchee country, which is now being extensively advertised as the ideal home of the apple, and where land is now being sold, I believe, at fancy prices. The chief part of the crop was then gathered, but the trees that were still laden with apples to the breaking point showed what the soil here- is capable of. A narrow, irrigated strip along the Columbia river was, perhaps, all that the boomers claimed, but of the desolation that hemmed it in the boom literature said never a word. The settled lands were little oases, green and pleasant to look upon, but the dreary treeless, rocky lands, bearing no sign of life and no vegetation save the gray, ashen sage-brush, ran away on every hand to the farthest limit-of vision, making a dreary desert picture not to be forgotten. Along the roads the pulverized dust, shoe-mouth deep, arose in clouds with every passing foot, and the whole dun landscape seemed powdered with dust. Nature, as if by a law of compensation, has stored this unpromising soil with latent elements of rare fruit- fulness; but he who lives here and converts these elements into a golden harvest must pay the price. Washington is, perhaps, one of the "spottiest" countries on earth. Fertile soil and sterile, warm soil and cold, lie varieties of grapes, while over the hills 0 mile or two away, they do no good. A lriend of mine in eastern Washington writes me of.a tract being boomed there as "natural fruit land, and the home of the apple." All this is based upon one bearing orchard on the top lands adjoining, the tract itself being black lowland. According to my correspondent, this rich, fine-appearing soil is underlaid by an alkali subsoil that is fatal to fruitage though the trees may grow and seem ta be thriving. As hundreds of small tracts have been sold to buyers who built their little homes and set out orchards, in anticipation of future profits, there would seem to be something of the tragic in their faith. All of which goes to show that the homeseeker in this country who is a stranger to its conditions, runs a perfect gauntlet of risks, against which a word of warning should be uttered. This does not mean that I would advise one to keep away from Washington. On the contrary 1 repeat what I said before that no boom section in the country can offer more advantages than this—only let no one be lured by the bait, so often used, of five or six hundred dollars annual profit off of each acre of land owned. The probabilities are that your profit will not exceed what your industry and capacity can create in Indiana. In a later letter, if this proves of interest, I may have more to say of the attractions of Washington as I have observed them. Ceo. S. Cottman. Vaughn, Wash., Jan. 14. Our Agricultural Wealth. According to the report of Secretary Wilson recently issued, it is indeed very 1 ard for anyone to talk of the down trodden farmer, and some question whether it is really needful for the Government to engage in the uplift business on behalf of the agriculturist. During the last year the farm value of all farm productn reached the extraordinary total of $7,- 778,000,000—four times the value of the products of the mines, including mineral oils and precious metals. It would take eight billion dollar Congresses to dispose of this sum. In other words, enough money is now extracted out of the farms of thecountry in a year to pay forrunniug the Government for eight consecutive years. Broadly speaking the farmers of the country are better off this year than in previous years in two respects; the crops are better than the average and the prices are much higher. It is not so much, however by reason of increased production this year that the farmers are better eff as it is because of high prices. And yet, with all the allurements of such wealth on farms, the Government officials have found it necessary to step in to establish a remedy whereby country 1'fe may be made so pleasant as to keep the boys and girls on the farm, and not turn to the enchanting lights and witchcraft of the city, where as clerks, their s; iaries of $10 and $12 a week, and little cubby holes for lodging, are the reward, instead of pure food, pure air and pure en vironments of the country. The temptation to leave the country is great, but the awakening is sad. s s» s Wants Quick Pasture. Editors Indiana Farmer: I have a field that was planted to corn last year that I would like to sow in something that will make pasture this coming summer. I also want to sow this feld iu bluegrass or something that will make a permanent pasture. Any advice you can give me will be thankfully received. C. F. A. —You cannot expect much pasture next summer from anythiug you can sow in the spring. You should have sown rye or vetch last fall. They would have made some good forage in May. If your soil is fertile, clover will give some good pasture in late summer. Sow quite early, about 12 pounds per acre. Oats might help you out. Important Bills. A bill will be presented before the House for the enactment of an inheritance tax law. It provides for a graduated scale of income tax depending upon the degree of the relationship of the beneficiaries and the amount of property involved. Two bills were introduced in the Senate for the protection of game, and fish, and a third fixes a penalty for those who hunt and fish on private grounds without permission. A bill for the adolition of the open season on quail for a period of five years was introduced. Also a bill making it unlawful to fish in any of the streams from February 1 to June 15, but not including the lakes. Our Indiana Farmer's Account Books are still in good demand, and we are filling orders for them on the day they are received. A copy ought to be in the desk of every farmer; price only 25 cents. |
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