watering. In some spots there is an injurious surplus of alkali.
It is generally covered with sagebrush and has the appearance of
sterility, but upon cultivation under irrigation, produces wonderful
results in quantity and quality of grains and grasses and fruits
and vegetables.

GRAINS.

Wheat, oats and corn are successfully grown, but not in large acreage,
because larger profits can be realized from other crops.

HOPS AND POTATOES.

Hops, for example, which can be produced at a cost of 7-1/2 cents
per pound, yield from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds per acre, and potatoes,
yielding from 300 to 500 bushels per acre, and receiving the highest
market price, are both more profitable than wheat or oats.

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ALFALFA.

Alfalfa, yielding from eight to ten tons per acre, and commanding
from $6.00 to $12.00 per ton, is a very profitable crop. Much wheat
and oats are cut when in the milk and sold for hay, and yield better
returns than when matured and threshed.

FRUITS.

The smaller fruits are very profitable under irrigation, yielding
from $300 to $500 net per acre, while apples, pears, peaches, grapes,
etc., often far exceed these figures, sometimes yielding as much
as $1,000 per acre net.

DAIRYING.

Dairying is extensively followed on the irrigated lands, particularly
in Kittitas county, where the cool atmosphere is very favorable,
and the farmers find that turning timothy and clover, alfalfa and
grain hay into butter fat is more profitable than wheat-raising.

PREPARATION OF LAND.

There is a good deal of this arid land which will have to be freed
from the sagebrush and smoothed over before it will be fit for
irrigation. This expense, together with building headgates and
lateral ditches, building flumes and seeding to alfalfa, will cost
from $15.00 to $20.00 per acre, depending upon the character of
the surface, the size of the sagebrush, and amount of flumes, etc.
Some, however, very smooth lands can be prepared for seeding at
less expense.

DISPOSITION OF CROPS.

The hay crops are in large part sold on the ground and fed to cattle
and sheep which have summered in the mountain ranges and are carried
through the winters on the farms in the valleys. What is left after
supplying this demand is baled and shipped by rail to the markets
on Puget sound, Portland or Spokane. The Sound country is also the
chief purchaser of the fruits, although many winter apples, on
account of their superior quali