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The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., April 3, 1909, page 9

EASTERN KLICKITAT AND THE GREAT BICKLETON COUNTRY

Eastern Klickitat was occupied in the early days by stock men only. It was an ideal home for the great herds that roamed over it.
The bunch grass furnished pasture, both summer and winter, and no other feed was deemed necessary.
In the latter part of the 70's and the early 80's immigration found its way here and established the first permanent settlements.
They found a rich bunch grass country that yielded readily to cultivation. But there has been many ups and downs, and many unsuccessful as well as successful experiments from then to now.
It happens that the Agricultural development of the county has depended on the solution of two great problems. One the proper method of tilling soil; and the other the selection of seed varieties that would produce the highest grade milling wheat. Our efforts have been crowned with remarkable success.
Wheat yields from 15 bushels to 40 bushels to the acre, of No. 1 wheat.
Grain grown on the plateau of eastern Klickitat is remarkably free from smut; and rust is unknown.
The climatic conditions are such that we are able to grow the finest grade of milling wheat, as a standard crop.
Previous to the season of 1908 the farmers had to haul their grain across the Columbia River and ship on the O.R. & N. line; but with the completion of the North Bank railroad we are brought nearer to the Portland market than any other wheat section in Washington, -- outside of Klickitat Valley.
Eastern Klickitat is not densely populated, and there is much land yet to be developed.
This section of the county is capable of producing 2, 000, 000 bushels of grain annually. Many hundreds of acres are brought under cultivation each year, but thousands of acres yet await their turn to help feed the world.
With new transportation facilities idle prairie land will soon be a thing of the past.
We have the soil as nature made it and left it there. No importation, -- and it produces abundant crops, with the water and that is sprinkled down from above.
We want people to come and invest and make it their home.
Many people brought tracts of land in early days, when land was cheap; and many of these tracts of unimproved land can now be bought for $10 to $20 per acre.
They have already several times doubled on the first cost, and it's only a matter of a few months, when the price will still further advance.
The time for the man of limited means to buy is while land is cheap.
When you buy virgin prairie land for $15 per acre, that will grow thirty bushels of wheat to the acre when brought under good cultivation and you are able to sell this wheat at $1.00 a bushel, you have one of the opportunities of a life time.
J.J. Hill the railroad magnate, says the day of cheap wheat is past, and he says further that in six years the United States will be importing wheat instead of exporting it. If this forecast of the future is true, will it be possible for wheat in the Inland Empire to remain below one dollar a bushel?
Further, says Mr. Hill, in 1945 the United States will have a population of 200, 000, 000, to feed these people that we would require twice the wheat we produce today. Samuel Hill, in his lecture at Goldendale, on "good roads" predicted that in 80 years there would be maintained a dense population on Columbia hills, similar to that he recently observed in Switzerland. Predictions like these coming from these eminent man who are in touch with progress, give us food for thought.
With wheat soaring around one dollar a bushel what is the actual corresponding value of wheat land?
It is only a matter of a few years when every acre available for wheat growing will be in cultivation, and the amount of raw wheat land is so comparatively small as not to effect the future supply of grain.
A half section makes a nice size farm for wheat growing. One man can farm that much and farm it well.
Many of our best farmers handle a section, and if you keep a boy or two, or want to keep a hired man part of the year, it is none too much land. The farmer rides, whether he plows, discs, drills or harrows.
Many of our farmers try to farm more than they can farm well. They count the acres more carefully than they do the bushels.
They ought to sell out part of their holdings to someone who would do a better job and both would be doing a good job then.

HOW TO GROW WHEAT

As soon as the ground is in good physical condition in the spring begin the summer-culture by double discing. Followed closely with the spike-tooth harrow.
In May or June plow seven inches deep and harrow in immediately. Harrow in the morning all plowed the previous day, for best results.
Thus soil is thus kept in the finest physical condition. Cultivate after the midsummer rains in order to destroy all weeds.
Summer-culture for the storing of rain waters in the soil is a most important adjunct in farming in the Great North West wheat belt.
The object of summer-culture is not to give the land a rest but to keep it alive and actively engaged in the manufacture of plant foods and to improve the physical condition of the soil.
At any time during September or October seed for the next year's crop. Don't plant more than 40 pounds to the acre at the most.
We have no cyclones or blizzards. The country is free from the extremes of heat and cold. The atmosphere is as pure as the mountain air itself. The prevailing winds come from the Southwest and are tempered by the warm Japan current. They are the warm chinook winds of winter, and the cool, damp winds of summer.
There are but a few hot days in summer, and the nights are cool and restful. Water is obtained mostly from wells, though many springs are to be found. Because of the elevation of the country, and it's nearness to the Simcoe range, the water is of the best purest.

BICKLETON

Bickleton is the principal town, and principal trading point.
An electric road has been surveyed and right-of-way nearly all secured.
When built this will run through the heart of the wheat belt.
You can reach Bickleton from St. Paul points via Northern Pacific to Mabton, and take the stage for Bickleton. Or you may have your tickets routed via Northern Pacific to Pasco via Spokane, Portland & Seattle Ry. to Roosevelt. You can then take daily stage from Roosevelt to Bickleton.

Remember: That this has been one of the finest stock countries in the world.
That the wheat belt of the Inland Empire is the Premier mine of the Great North West.
Wheat is King.
It does not pay to rent when you can buy.
That we can sell our grain in either Portland or Puget Sound markets.
That if we don't lead the world in the quality of wheat the fellow who does what have any time to crow.