A Review of the Resources and Industries of the State of Washington, 1909 Part 3

The business of catching, preserving and selling fish gives employment probably to more than 10,000 men in this state and adds probably four million dollars annually to its wealth production. The fishes include salmon, which is the chief commercial species, cod in many varieties, halibut, salmon trout, perch, sole, flounders, smelt, herring, sardines, oysters, clams, crabs and shrimp from its salt waters, and sturgeon, trout, perch, black ba.s.s, white fish and many others from the fresh water. Great quant.i.ties of salmon and halibut are s.h.i.+pped in ice-packed boxes, fresh from the waters, to all parts of the nation. Of these fish, many salmon, halibut and cod are caught in Alaskan waters and brought into this state to be cured and prepared for the market.

The salmon are chiefly packed in tin cans after being cooked; the cod are handled as are the eastern cod, dried and salted. The business of handling the smelts, herring, etc., is in its infancy, as is also that of the sh.e.l.lfish.

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The propagation of oysters, both native and eastern, is a.s.suming great importance in many places in the state. In Shoalwater bay, Willipa bay, Grays harbor, and many of the bays and inlets of Puget Sound, oysters are being successfully grown. In some instances oyster farms are paying as much as $1,000 per acre. The state has sold many thousand acres of submerged lands for this purpose. It has also reserved several thousand acres of natural oyster beds, from which the seed oysters are annually sold at a cheap price to the oyster farmers, who plant them upon their own lands and market them when full grown.

The native oysters are much smaller than the eastern oysters and of a distinct flavor, but command the same prices in the market.

AGRICULTURE.

Cereals.

The largest and most important industry in the state is without doubt the cultivation of the soil. The great variety of the soils and climatic conditions has made the state, in different parts, admirably adapted to a large variety of farm products. Vast fields of wheat cover a large proportion of the uplands of eastern Was.h.i.+ngton, the average yield of which is greater than that of any other state in the Union.

The diked lands of western Was.h.i.+ngton produce oats at the rate of 100 to 125 bushels per acre. In some counties in southeastern Was.h.i.+ngton barley is more profitable than any other cereal, on account of the large yield and superior quality.

Corn is successfully raised in some of the irrigated lands, but is not as profitable as some other crops and hence is not an important factor in Was.h.i.+ngton's grain supply. Rye, buckwheat, and flax, are successfully grown in many localities. In western Was.h.i.+ngton, particularly, peas form an important ration for stock food and are extensively raised for seed, excelling in quality the peas of most other states.

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Hops.

Hops are a large staple product in many counties of the state.

They are of excellent quality, and the yield is large and their cultivation generally profitable. The chief drawback is in the fluctuations of the market price.

Gra.s.s and Hay.

Gra.s.s here, as elsewhere, is very little talked about, although it is one of the large elements that make the profits of agriculture.

Saying nothing of the vast amount of gra.s.s consumed green, the state probably produces a million tons of hay annually, averaging $10 per ton in value. Western Was.h.i.+ngton is evergreen in pasturage as well as forests and no spot in the Union can excel it for annual gra.s.s production.

East of the mountains a very large acreage is in alfalfa, with a yield exceeding six tons per acre.

Potatoes.

On the alluvial soils of western Was.h.i.+ngton and the irrigated lands of the eastern valleys, potatoes yield exceedingly heavy crops of fine tubers, often from 400 to 600 bushels per acre. All other root crops are produced in abundance.

Beets.

Extensive experiments have proved that the sugar beet can be raised profitably in many counties and sugar is now on the markets of the state, made within its borders from home-grown beets.

Truck Gardening.

Garden stuff is supplied to all the large cities chiefly from surrounding lands in proper seasons, but much is imported from southern localities to supply the market out of season. The soils utilized for this purpose are the low alluvial valley lands and irrigated volcanic ash lands. The yield from both is astonis.h.i.+ng to people from the eastern prairie states, and even in western Was.h.i.+ngton, with its humid atmosphere and cool nights, tomatoes, squashes and sweet corn are being generously furnished the city markets. The warm irrigated lands of eastern [Page 24]

Was.h.i.+ngton produce abundant crops of melons, cuc.u.mbers, squashes and all other vegetables.

HORTICULTURE.

The conditions for successful fruit growing are abundant, and peculiarly adapted to produce excellence in quality and quant.i.ty in nearly all parts of the state, but some localities have better conditions for some particular fruits than others, e. g., western Was.h.i.+ngton excels in the raising of raspberries and other small fruits of that sort, its climate and soils being suited to the production of large berries and heavy yields.

Certain localities in eastern Was.h.i.+ngton excel in the yield of orchard fruits, chiefly on irrigated lands. Owing to the abundant suns.h.i.+ne, the fruits of eastern Was.h.i.+ngton are more highly colored than those of other sections of the state.

Taking the state as a whole, horticulture is rapidly a.s.suming vast importance. Thousands of acres are yearly being added to the area of orchards, and remarkable cash returns are being realized from the older plantings now in full bearing.

This is true of all the common orchard fruits, apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, etc.

In western Was.h.i.+ngton large plantings of the small fruits are growing in favor, some of the new fruits receiving especial attention. One plantation of thirty acres is devoted exclusively to Burbank's phenomenal berry.

Grapes are being grown on both sides of the mountains, the eastern side, however, giving this fruit much more attention. Cranberries are being produced in quant.i.ties on some of the bog lands near the sea coast.

Nuts have been planted on both sides of the mountains in an experimental way, and it has been found that walnuts, chestnuts, and filberts are profitable. In the southeastern section of the state, nut growing bids fair to develop into a considerable industry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 19.--Royal Anne Cherry Tree, Owned by J. H. Rogers, Lexington, Cowlitz County. Circ.u.mference of this Tree Below First Limb, 72-3 Feet. Yield in 1907, 1,500 pounds.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 20.--Dairy Herd on Ranch of T. D. Dungan, Kelso, Cowlitz County.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 21.--Douglas County Fruit.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 22.--Douglas County Wheat at Tram Waiting s.h.i.+pment on Columbia River Boats.]

STOCK RAISING.

The glory once enjoyed by this industry is rapidly changing color.

Formerly, a predominating feature of the state was its [Page 25]

big herds feeding gratuitously on government lands. This condition still exists to an extent, the forests being utilized, under regulations by the government, but the herds are limited.

Individual farms and small herds are now the order of the day and, incidentally, better breeds are developing. This is true of horses, cattle and sheep. The demand for horses is chiefly for the heavy draft animals for use in the logging camps and on the streets of the cities, and the demand is fairly well supplied, chiefly in eastern Was.h.i.+ngton.

Good cows and fat steers are always in demand, and Was.h.i.+ngton's market for them is not fully supplied from the home farms. The same is true regarding sheep and hogs. The phenomenal growth of the seaport towns on Puget Sound and the difficulty in clearing the lands in western Was.h.i.+ngton combine to make the consumption exceed the home grown supply, and many are imported from neighboring states.

There is abundant room for expansion in stock raising in the state.

Conditions are admirable. Gra.s.s is abundant for pasturage, hay is a prolific crop, the climate is mild, no pests afflict the cattle, and the markets are at the door and always hungry.

THE DAIRY.

There are few states in the Union equal to Was.h.i.+ngton in its possession of natural conditions suited to make dairying profitable. In all of western Was.h.i.+ngton, in the western part of eastern Was.h.i.+ngton, and in both the northeastern and southeastern sections of the state, the climate and soil conspire to make ideal grazing. Particularly is this true in the western part of the state. All the gra.s.ses grow in luxuriance, and with proper care and forethought there may be secured almost twelve months of green feed annually. The crops best adapted for use as ensilage grow well, making large yields. Timothy, clover hay and alfalfa are the standbys for winter feed so far as the coa.r.s.e feed is concerned, and while mill stuffs and all grains are high in price, so are correspondingly the products of the dairy. b.u.t.ter ranges from 25 cents to 40 cents per pound, and milk sells in the coast cities for 10 cents per quart.

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POULTRY.

Perhaps no part of agriculture is more profitable to the wise farmer than his barnyard fowls, and in Was.h.i.+ngton this is exceptionally true. Eggs retail in the coast towns at 25 cents to 60 cents per dozen. Turkeys at Thanksgiving time are worth from 25 cents to 30 cents per pound dressed, and other fowl in proportion. Conditions can be made as ideal for poultry raising in this state as anywhere, and with the market never satisfied, the poultry raiser has every essential to success in his favor.

BEE CULTURE.

Bee culture among the orchards and alfalfa fields of eastern Was.h.i.+ngton is a side line which should not be neglected by the farmer or horticulturist. Many are fully alert to the favorable conditions, and Was.h.i.+ngton honey is on sale in the late summer in most of the cities and towns until the supply is exhausted, and then that from other states comes in to meet the demand.