of farm and garden produce which is almost tropical in its wealth. This
favored region has been for years known as the

PALOUSE COUNTRY,

And is reached from Portland via Pendleton, on the main line of the Union
Pacific Ry. From Pendleton to Spokane Falls on the north the soil is rich
beyond belief; a black, loamy deposit so deep that it seems well-nigh
inexhaustible. This heavy soil predominates in the valleys, and while the
uplands are not so rich, still immense crops of wheat are raised. For
hundreds of miles on this new division of the Union Pacific the country
is a perfect garden land of wheat and fruit, and these farms are often of
mammoth proportions. Here are 13,000,000 acres of land possessing all the
requirements and advantages of climate and soil for the making of one
vast wheat-field. The enormous yield of 7,000,000 bushels of wheat has
been harvested in one valley.

The authentic figures of the crop yield in this splendid country seem
almost incredible. Fifty thousand bushels of wheat have been raised on
1,000 acres of land. As low as 35 bushels and as high as 74-1/4 bushels
of wheat to the acre have been harvested in this section. The average
covered seems to be from 47 to 55 bushels per acre, and no fertilizers
of any sort being required. The berry in its full maturity is very
solid, weighing from 65 to 69 pounds per bushel, this being from five
to nine pounds over standard weight. While wheat is the staple product,
oats are also grown, the yield being very heavy. Rye, barley, and flax
are also successfully cultivated. Clover, bunch-grass, and alfalfa grow
finely.

In the growing of fruits and vegetables this grand empire of Eastern
Washington is quite unsurpassed. At one of the recent agricultural
fairs a farmer exhibited 109 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and
cereals. These included the best qualities of Yellow Nansemond sweet
potatoes, mammoth melons of all varieties, eggplant, sorghum and syrup
cane, broom-corn, tobacco, grapes, cotton, peanuts, and many other
things, some of which do not attain to so high a degree of excellence
elsewhere farther north than the Carolinas. Peaches, apples, and prunes
of superior quality delighted the eye. Peaches had been marketed
continuously, from, the same orchards, from the 15th of July to the
15th of October. There were hanging in the pavilion diplomas awarded at
the New Orleans Exposition to citizens in this valley for exhibits of
the best qualities and gr