A Report On Washington Territory Part 8

Besides wheat, these lands produce barley of superior quality, weighing fifty pounds to the bushel, at the rate of fifty to sixty bushels per acre, and oats weighing thirty-eight pounds to the bushel at the same rate per acre. The weight of wheat is sixty pounds to the bushel. Barley sells at 90 cents per 100 pounds, and is largely shipped East to be made into beer.

The wheat usually grown is the Little Club, a short, strong white wheat; but the Little Giant, Red Chaff and Chili Giant are productive. Spring wheat is generally sown, but winter wheat is probably best. Blue stem brings five cents extra in Portland. Freight, $5 a ton from Walla Walla to Portland; thirty-three bushels counted a ton.

The wheat here has no enemies--no fly, nor rust, nor weeds, nor lodging.

[Sidenote: The soil a natural fertilizer.]

Much of the land has been cultivated for sixteen years without rest or manure, and without diminution of crop; but the best farmers prefer to rest and cultivate in alternate years. By the latter system the ploughing is done in the off-year, and the land left a naked fallow.

This is thought to cleanse the land and renew its strength. And in some cases in which lands have an excess of alkali, their productiveness increases with cultivation. Sometimes the land contains as much as eighteen pounds of potash to the cubic yard; which fact, by the way, suggests the possibility of leaching the land to procure potash and other alkalies.

[Sidenote: Quality of the wheat.]

The wheat of the Pacific coast has 4 per cent. less gluten in it than the Eastern wheat, and this practically shuts it out of the Eastern market. Nitrogen in Washington Territory wheat is 22 per cent. to 26 per cent., whilst in the Eastern it is 34 per cent. to 40 per cent., and inferior in quality. The true gluten is too brittle. It is better than the California wheat, however, which has 4 per cent. to 6 per cent. less nitrogenous matter, and the gluten inferior in quality. But the California wheat makes a whiter flour than the Washington Territory wheat, which is an advantage in selling. It should be remarked that the term nitrogen, when applied technically to wheat, includes true gluten, the phosphates, and all alb.u.minoids, and excludes starch, sugar and water, which latter comprise about seventy-two per cent. of the wheat.

Still, the Washington Territory wheat-grower has the advantage in quant.i.ty per acre, which gives him a better profit than is now made in California or any Eastern State. The price at Spokane Falls varies from 45 cents to 60 cents per bushel, which would give the farmer $10 to $12.50 per acre for his crop, which is more than the average Eastern farmer gets, whilst the cost of production ought to be, and ultimately will be, less.

[Sidenote: The market in England, China, and other Asiatic ports.]

Flour is sent to England, by Cape Horn, at a cost of $1.30 per barrel from Spokane Falls, and in Liverpool brings within 20 cents a barrel as much as the Minneapolis flour, and it is also shipped to China and other Asiatic ports, where it seems destined to supersede rice for bread.

China raises wheat, but not nearly enough for home consumption. The Asiatic and Oceanic market will, ultimately, want all the wheat of our Pacific States.

[Sidenote: Astonishing growth of vegetables.]

[Sidenote: Crops without rain.]

Besides the cereals, vegetables of nearly all kinds grow to great size on this plateau. Those requiring a more uniformly warm temperature, such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, beans and peanuts, do best in the region lying south of the Snake River, which is much less elevated than the country north and east. And this is true also of peaches, grapes, and other fruits requiring similar conditions. But as regards most vegetables, especially roots, and also fruits, the plateau generally is very productive. This is almost unaccountable in view of the fact that after the first of June there is little or no rain until late in the fall. Whilst rain seems to be necessary to start the small seeds, large crops of potatoes are sometimes raised without a drop of rain. The moisture must come partly from the soil, which has retained the winter water, and partly from the deposition of moisture by the sea-air which comes through the gap in the Cascade Mountains and penetrates the deep, loose soil. Mr. Paul F. Mohr has measured a parsnip four feet long and eight inches across the top. I saw potatoes in Colfax, thirty of which filled a bushel measure.

As before intimated, I doubt whether the plateau can ever become a good gra.s.s and hay country. For long forage, besides straw, the people must depend upon the cereals mowed in the green state.

[Sidenote: West (not East) Washington is to be the great cattle country.]

For this reason the plateau, as will also be the case with the great plains eastward, can never carry the number of cattle that can be grazed in a gra.s.s country. A farmer told me it required fifteen acres of bunch gra.s.s to support one horse or steer, whilst in a gra.s.s country three acres are ample, and on the best sods one acre is sufficient. Still, the bunch gra.s.s is, and ought to be, utilized. And the areas of unimproved land are so vast that the herds of cattle, horses and sheep which range upon them altogether const.i.tute a large item of wealth. And on these treeless plains the effort seems to be to train the cattle and horses to live like buffaloes and wild horses in both summer and winter.

[Sidenote: Tree-planting.]

The tree problem will, I think, work out satisfactorily, though, of course, no such trees can ever be produced there as abound in West Washington. Walla Walla is embowered in trees of artificial growth. The Lombardy poplar seems to have been most successful. At various points I saw plantations of box elder, and was told that this tree is easily grown. The cottonwood is said to grow readily. Captain John McGowan reports the successful culture of locust, walnut, maple and catalpa in Lincoln County. He says, also, that the plum, peach, apricot, apple, pear and grape succeed: and so with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. All these fruits are grown about Spokane Falls, but I think that the grape and peach sometimes fail to mature. A good many plantations of trees have been set out under the timber-culture act of Congress, but it is thought that much imposition has been practised on the Government by the failure to take proper care of the trees after they were planted. The truth about the whole matter seems to be that, with proper care, trees of most varieties may be grown on the plateau, but that they will grow slowly and not attain large size. I might add many details concerning the products of this wonderful country, but these will suffice as ill.u.s.trations.

LABOR.

[Sidenote: Good supply of labor, but more wanted.]

Under this head I will merely say that, though the laboring population of Washington Territory is very mixed and has not the settled character of labor in the old States, and though many more laborers could find employment, there does not seem to be any special deficiency of this cla.s.s, and the high wages that are paid will, no doubt, bring in more workmen as they are wanted.

[Sidenote: Wages.]

Governor Squire, in his report for 1885, page 41, gives quite a detailed list of wages, which shows that the rates are at least fifty per cent.

higher than in the Middle States, and double what is paid in the Southern Atlantic States. Farm laborers get from $25 to $30 a month and board. Loggers pay from $35 to $40 per month to common hands, and $65 to $70 to teamsters. Skilled labor receives high wages, and railway contractors sometimes have to pay $2 to $2.50 per day for common hands. Servant girls are scarce, and wanted, at $15 a month and board.

Hotel servants get from $20 to $25 a month. Chinamen are extensively employed for family servants. Many of them are tolerable cooks, and get $30 a month and board. Indians are working more than formerly. The men "slash" the forests, pick hops, etc. Squaws always were industrious--had to be! The Sandwich Islands, as well as China and j.a.pan, furnish some laborers. The employers are favorable to this cla.s.s of immigrants, whilst the white laborers are bitterly opposed to them. Canada will continue to employ cheap Chinese labor, and thus place our Pacific States at a disadvantage, if the present policy of excluding Chinese labor is continued.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRIDGE OVER THE SPOKANE RIVER, SEATTLE, LAKE Sh.o.r.e AND EASTERN RAILWAY.]

THE GEOLOGY OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

HISTORICAL AND STRUCTURAL.

I shall not say much about the historical geology of Washington Territory, because it contains some problems which have never been adequately studied, and which I had no opportunity to investigate. It is to be hoped that the regular work of the Government Survey may soon be extended to this important region. Hitherto it has been neglected. A few able geologists such as Joseph Le Conte, Pumpelly, Newberry, Bailey Willis, and some others, have made visits to the country on special errands; but except the treatise of Bailey Willis in Vol. XV. of the Census Reports, and some brief allusions to the country in systematic works on general geology, I had nothing to guide me as to the structure of the country, or the age of its deposits. For all practical purposes, however, I had no difficulty in understanding the work I had to do.

[Sidenote: The Western Coast regions younger than the Rocky Mountains and Appalachians.]

[Sidenote: An outlying Continent.]

[Sidenote: The rise of the West Coast.]

All agree that the country west of the Rocky Mountains proper, and including nearly all of California, Oregon, and Washington Territory, is geologically younger than the main range, and younger than the Appalachian country. At the close of the carboniferous period proper, the Rocky Mountain range const.i.tuted a separate continent, with a sea covering what is now the main Mississippi Valley, including the wide plains immediately east of the Rocky Mountains, and connecting, probably, with the polar sea, whilst the Pacific Ocean washed the western edge of this Rocky Mountain continent; so that until after that period there were no Wahsatch and Uintah mountains, no Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range, no Coast Range, and, of course, none of the intervening country. It is quite possible, however, that there was a third continent lying west of the present continent in what is now ocean, from whose waste the sediments were derived which were afterwards elevated and became the land now included in the three States bordering the Pacific, whilst the mother continent, which furnished the sediments, sank beneath the ocean. If there were such an outlying continent, additional force is given to the views of Dr. George F. Becker, endorsed by Dr. C. A. White, and to some extent antic.i.p.ated by Prof. J. D. Whitney, which render it probable on other grounds that the two great lines of mountains, viz., the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range and the Coast Range, began their upward movement simultaneously during the early ages of the Juro-Trias.

The rise of these mountain lines was gradual and marked by reverse movements, whereby, after appearing above the surface, they sank and rose alternately, receiving fresh sediments, which, especially in the Washington Territory region and part of Oregon and California, when above water, became clothed with an enormous vegetation which was packed into coal-beds, layer after layer. In the lapse of time these all came above the surface. The mountains grew higher and higher, attended by intense heat in the axes of the ranges, and at different periods, down almost to the present, exhibiting volcanic action on an enormous scale.

At other periods, a large portion of the region was visited by ice-floods, succeeded by water-floods, which top-dressed great areas with a mingled deposit of gravel, sand and mud, and carried away vast blocks of the rocky substance of the country, and cut deep channels in all the highlands.

As Washington Territory is now presented to us, it exhibits a scene of mountains, lowlands, and elevated plateaus, which are full of interest and variety. Some general account of its topography has already been given.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOWER SNOQUALMIE FALLS, 268 FEET HIGH, ON LINE OF SEATTLE, LAKE Sh.o.r.e AND EASTERN RAILWAY.]

[Sidenote: The rocks and minerals of the Cascade Mountains.]

The core of these high ranges is chiefly rock originally stratified, which has been metamorphosed by heat, and perhaps inside of all, with branches bursting out at various places, are plutonic rocks which have never been stratified. This is the state of things on the top of the Cascade Range, near Snoqualmie Pa.s.s, as well as on some subordinate peaks and ranges. On Mount Logan, the Denny Mountain, etc., are large bodies of syenitic granite whose age I have no means of determining.

a.s.sociated with this are quartzites of fine grain, and extremely hard, porphyries, and serpentinoid and chloritic rocks of different sorts, in which are imbedded the magnetic iron ores; and also large beds of crystalline limestone, both fine and coa.r.s.e grained. Crossing these, at various angles, are veins containing the precious and base metals.

[Sidenote: The metamorphic rocks of doubtful origin.]

Whether these rocks are Palaeozoic or Archaean in their origin, or whether they are simply the metamorphosed strata of the upper Juro-Trias, or the lower Cretaceous, is a question for future study. These plutonic and metamorphic rocks are believed to extend through the mountainous region lying north of the Columbia River; and they are reported also in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. It is quite certain that on both flanks of the Cascade Mountains we find in their natural state Cretaceous conglomerates, sandstones, and shales bearing coal, at least in their upper beds. The deposits on the east side of the mountain have been much grooved and denuded, until we find only small areas of the Cretaceous strata on the Yakima and the Wenatchie rivers, and the Peshastan ridge between, with a patch of the coal-bearing rocks on the Yakima, and another on the Wenatchie. On the west side of the mountain range, the Cretaceous and coal-bearing areas are much larger.

[Sidenote: The coal beds.]

The coal deposits of all the Cretaceous regions of the West are regarded as belonging to the Laramie period which closed the Cretaceous age, and const.i.tutes a transition period between the Cretaceous and Tertiary. But I do not regard this question as settled. The inferior lignites of the Rocky Mountains, and the semi-lignites which const.i.tute the upper beds of the Washington Cretaceous coal properly belong to the Laramie period; but to include the underlying bituminous coals in the same group may be a matter of question. More will be said in reference to these coal beds under the next head. The Western coal-bearing rocks begin on outlying mountains, standing at the west foot of the main Cascade Range. These outlyers are irregular in size, height and direction; but many of them are 1,000 to 1,500 feet in height, and they are found in groups, separated by denuded s.p.a.ces, from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Canada line nearly to the Columbia River. The largest and most important field, however, lies south of the Snoqualmie River and between Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains. Some of the coals found in the most southern part of the field, and on the Coast Range, are referred to the Tertiary period.

A smaller and wholly undeveloped field lies on the Skagit River, and another on, and west of Bellingham Bay. Similar beds are found on Vancouver's Island. Coal-bearing strata are found also on the Chehalis, Des Chutes, Nisqually and Cowlitz rivers. Whilst some of these southern and western strata are referred to the Tertiary period, there has been no systematic study of their geologic relations.

[Sidenote: The volcanic mountains and their great activity.]

It seems to be settled, however, that the lofty volcanic mountains which form conspicuous features in the scenery of the Cascade Range, were active in the Tertiary period, and not only built their own crests 9,000 to 15,000 feet high, but inundated much of the surrounding country with lava to an amazing breadth and depth. In this region, Mount Baker, Mount Ranier (also called Mount Tacoma), Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams in Washington Territory, and Mount Hood in Oregon, were the centres of the grandest operations; and so continued for ages.

[Sidenote: The wonderful canon of the Columbia River.]

We see gigantic results of this activity in the canon 1,000 to over 3,000 feet deep, which the Columbia River has cut through this volcanic matter in its pa.s.sage through the Cascade Mountains. This volcanic deposit consists of brown basalt, which in cooling crystallized into vertical, polygonal prisms, or columns, which have been sculptured by the weather into endlessly varied forms, beautiful, fantastic, and grand; altogether presenting a scene, or succession of scenes, for twenty-five miles, such as can nowhere else be equaled on the American continent, unless it be near by, on a tributary of the Columbia, the Des Chutes River of Oregon.

[Sidenote: The great sheets of basalt.]