great Columbia river in the south, Willapa harbor, Grays harbor,
the majestic straits of Fuca and the equally majestic straits of
Georgia on the north are all great open highways from the sea, not
only for merchandise laden ships, but for myriads of salt water
food fishes which annually traverse their bottoms. Into these open
mouths flows a great network of fresh water rivers and streams,
draining the entire area of the state and providing the spawning
waters for the fishes from the sea not only, but for millions of
strictly fresh water fishes. Not only these, but late years have
proven the shore waters of the state to produce also great numbers
of oysters, clams, crabs and shrimp. Nor is this all, because the
proximity of the state to the ocean gives it a great advantage
in profiting from the fishing industry among that class of the
finny hosts who refuse to leave their salt water homes. So that
from the whales of Bering sea to the speckled beauties that haunt
the mountain
[Page 13]
streams, through the long list of delectable salt and fresh water
food, the fisherman of Washington has an enticing and most profitable
chance to satisfy his love of sport and adventure not only, but
to increase his bank account as well.

SOILS AND LANDS.

Washington is particularly blessed in having a diversity of soils,
all admirably adapted to some department of agriculture and giving
the state the opportunity of great diversity in the occupations
of its people. The central plateau of eastern Washington, made
up of level stretches and undulating hills, is all covered with a
soil composed of volcanic ash and the disintegration of basaltic
rocks which, together with some humus from decayed vegetation,
has made a field of surpassing fertility for the production of
the cereals with scant water supply; but under the magic touch of
irrigation it doubles its output and makes of it not only a grain
field but an orchard and garden as well. Underneath the forests
of eastern Washington, along the northern border of the state and
in its southeastern corner there is added a large proportion of
clay, a necessary element for perpetual pasturage, and widening
the field for fruit growing.

In western Washington, upon the bench lands and on the hills and
foothills the forests are supported upon a gravelly soil, intermixed
with a peculiar shot clay which disintegrates with successive tillage
so that when the forests are removed the soil becomes re