California 15.8
Dakota 10.6
Minnesota 11.3
New York 15.7
Ohio 18.0
Pennsylvania 13.4
Virginia 8.6
Washington Territory 23.5
Oregon 16.8
Illinois 15.5
The year 1886 was the worst wheat year ever known in Washington
Territory: its crop averaged sixteen and a half bushels.
[Sidenote: Railroads overwhelmed with freight.]
It is thought that the wheat crop of East Washington for 1887 will
exceed 10,000,000 bushels. It certainly went far beyond the ability of
the railroads to carry it away before winter. The most amazing glut of
freight I have ever seen was along the railroads in Walla Walla County.
Not only were the depots crowded to the roof, but piles of sacks larger
than the depots stood outside. It was a common sight through the whole
Snake River country to see 10,000 sacks of wheat in one pile outside of
the depots.
[Sidenote: Price of wheat and cost of production.]
The price of wheat runs from 40 cents to 60 cents a bushel; whilst the
cost of production on good land need not exceed 25 cents a bushel. Mr.
Hamilton, of Colfax, has a farm which he cultivates entirely by hired
labor, and he told me that the cost of his wheat was from 20 cents to 25
cents, and that his profit was $5 per acre. Good farms about Colfax can
be rented out at $2.50 per acre for the whole farm. Mr. Miles C. Moore,
of Walla Walla, probably the most exact business man of that region,
farms largely by hiring labor. He gave me the following statement of his
own operations: