ner and near its south and west borders
furnish good facilities for handling its generous wheat crops. To
these are soon to be added the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the
Portland & Seattle, and the North Coast roads, giving the county
very superior railroad facilities.

INDUSTRIES.

Wheat is its great staple crop, and the last year out of a crop
acreage of 275,000 gave to the world nearly 6,000,000 bushels, an
average of upwards of 20 bushels to the acre. When this average is
compared with that of the wheat fields of the Mississippi valley,
it is no wonder that the value of its realty has increased for
the purposes of taxation more than 300 per cent. in the past six
years. Horses, cattle, hogs and sheep are to a limited extent raised
on the farms, and are important adjuncts to its prosperity.

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PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

RITZVILLE is the county seat, and has a city hall, electric lights
and water system, flour and feed mills, and is the chief distributing
center of the county.

LIND will be one of the important points on the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul railway, now building across the county.

WASHTUCNA also is to have another outlet for its wheat over the
Portland & Seattle railway, projected and building. All these towns
have good schools, churches, warehouses, mercantile establishments,
and all enjoy an abundance of prosperity from the marketing of
the crops.

ASOTIN COUNTY

LOCATION.

Asotin county occupies the extreme southeastern corner of the state,
being separated from Idaho on the east by the Snake river and from
Oregon on the south by the state boundary. Its population is about
7,500, its area 640 square miles.

It takes in a portion of the Blue mountains, from which numerous
small streams furnish abundant water for all domestic farm purposes
and for irrigating quite a large area of lands, which makes the
county ideal for the stock-raiser and fruit-grower.

INDUSTRIES.

The irrigation of the low lands has had a wonderful effect in
stimulating the fruit industry, and resulted in a great advance
in land values, particularly about Clarkston and Cloverland, while
the cool water of the mountain streams and their grassy slopes
make the dairy business especially profitable. General farming,
however, is still the standby of the bulk of the population. At
Clarkston the lands irrigated and planted to orchards have reached
in many instances a value of $1,000 per acre, the waters being