Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/245

Rh also another large body of clay-loam land; and to the south, between the Chehalis and the Columbia—or, more properly, between the Columbia and the higher ground which separates the Columbia Valley from the basin of the Sound—there is a still larger district which may be converted to grain-raising. But the vicinity of the Sound, within a distance of from ten to twenty miles, affords little land that is good for grain, except that of the river-bottoms, and of that only certain portions.

For, as before noticed, these streams coming into the Sound are affected by the tides, the lowest land being overflowed daily. That portion of each valley which is free from submersion furnishes the most fertile soil imaginable for the production of every kind of grain, fruit, and vegetable—if we except melons, grapes, and peaches, which, owing to the cool nights, mature less perfectly than in Eastern Washington. The valleys of these small rivers, like those of Western Oregon, already described, are covered at first with a rank growth of moisture-loving trees, such as the ash, alder, willow, and poplar. But they are easily cleared; and the soil is of that warm, rich nature, that it produces a rapid growth of every thing intrusted to its bosom. Owing to the fact that these valleys are narrow, and head in mountains at no great distance, they are occasionally subject to floods. As floods never occur, however, except in the rainy, or winter season, a proper precaution in building, and harvesting his crops, should insure the farmer against loss from them when they do occur.

The rivers which empty into the Sound on the east side are the longest, with the greatest amount of alluvial lands. They are the Nisqually, Puyallup, White,