There are several facts about making farms out of logged-off lands
which should not be lost sight of, because they largely compensate
for the labor spent in the undertaking. One of these is that the
problem of fuel is solved for a lifetime and for the coming generation.
Five acres can be left untouched as a reserve and in a remarkably
few years it will re-forest itself.
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The growth of trees under the humid atmosphere of western Washington
is astonishing, and a very few years will suffice to provide one
with a wood lot to last a generation. Meanwhile some of the fir
logs and alder and maple trees will be preserved from the fire and
piled up to provide fuel for the years until the wood lot furnishes
a fresh green supply.
Then, too, as has already been suggested, the fence question, no
small item in a prairie country, is satisfactorily answered with no
expenditure but for labor. The cedar logs, splitting with ease, can
be turned into rails or boards or posts--preferably the former--and
the rails put on top of each other between two posts fastened together
at the top make as good a hog-tight and cattle-proof fence as can
be desired, and these rails will last in the fence for a century.
For the house, doubtless more satisfaction can be had by patronizing
the nearest saw-mill, although many houses made out of split cedar
timbers and boards are in the state, proofs at once of the usefulness
of this timber and the hardihood and ingenuity of the rancher.
But for the barn and stable, pig-stye, hennery, chicken-coop and
fruit boxes, and a great many other things, the rancher patronizes
his reserve log pile instead of the lumber yard, and saves time
and labor in so doing. Another fact which compensates the rancher
in western Washington in the struggle for a home which will provide
a safe and generous support in his old age is that during all the
labor and waiting he is enjoying a delightful climate, in which no
blizzard drives him from his work. No cyclone endangers his life
and fortune. No snakes lurk in the underbrush. No clouds of dust
blind his eyes. No sultry summer suns make him gasp for breath,
and no intense cold freezes his face or feet. He can work if he
wishes as many days as there are in the year, and know that every
stroke of his axe or mattock is a part of his capital safely invested
that will pay back an annual dividend for a lifetime. No soil will
respond to his energy more quickly or more generously.
There is one more possible compensation. Fir logs and stumps and
roots and bark are all full of pitch. Factories are now in operation
that are turning this wood into charcoal and
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saving and refining all the by-products, particularly turpentine,
wood alcohol, pitch and tar. These factories are successful and
paying dividends, but are on a large scale and permanently located.
It is probable that some genius will soon evolve a movable plant,
capable of serving the same purpose, which can go from one ranch
to another. When this is done, it will be found that the refuse
left by the logger is worth several times more than the cost of
getting it off the land with powder and fire, and, instead of being
a burden upon the land of $100 per acre, will become a matter of
merchandise to be sold for much more and removed from the land
with no expense to the owner.
As a final word, it should be remembered that, after these lands
are put under good tillage, every acre can be made to return more
than the cost of clearing annually. Western Washington has never
been able to produce enough to feed its wonderfully increasing
population. Meats, vegetables, fruits, poultry, eggs, etc., are
all constantly coming in from outside to supply the markets. This
condition keeps prices high. It has been so for twenty years, and
will be for twenty years to come. From $100 to $500 per acre per
year can be had from fruits and vegetables. The same can be realized
from poultry, nor will the dairy fall far behind when the scrub
cow is abandoned and a choice thoroughbred animal takes its place
and the soil is intensely tilled and fertilized.
The logged-off lands when first looked at are black and big labor and
difficulties. When the problem is intelligently understood--undertaken
with comprehension and some capital and plenty of grit--the solution
is easy and the rewards ample and gratifying.
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IRRIGATION IN WASHINGTON.
The lands which require irrigation in the state are chiefly the lower
lands in the valleys of the rivers east of the Cascade mountains.
The winds from the Pacific, though heavily laden with moisture,
are forced to surrender the greater portion to western Washington,
as they meet the cold heights of the mountain ranges. The mountains
themselves receive a very heavy fall of snow in winter, which fills
the lakes and sources of the rivers on the eastern side, providing
a large amount of water available for irrigation purposes, for
lands not too far distant. Within fifty miles from the mountain
peaks there is a drop of about 4,000 feet. The sides of the valleys
in the main are gradual slopes. These conditions make irrigation
very feasible. Its wonderful results have been seen and the process
of irrigation has found a wide field within the past few years.