Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1919 — HAS FINISHED ICE HARVEST [ARTICLE]

HAS FINISHED ICE HARVEST

FORMER JASPERITE WRITES INTERESTINGLY OF WEST: ERN LIFE. The fallowing letter received by the editor of the Republican from Scott Robinson, formerly of this county, has so many items of interest to many in the county that it is thought they would enjoy reading it: Lewie & Clark Hotel, Mandan, North Dakota*— February 26, 1919. Dear Cousin:— I just arrived here from the west. Was in Thork from January 4 to February 19. I finished up there and came to Spokane. We got 900 cars of ice off of the Thork Lake, all we needed to supply Auburn, Tacoma, Ellensburg and Yakima. We had a very mild winter out that way, in fact it was not very good ice weather, being too mild. I met several former residents of Jasper county while in the State of Washington. Among them was Frank Arnott arid family. (Father of Fred and Arthur Arnott of this community.—Ed.) They formerly lived at McCoysburg. They now live at 124 South Ray street, Spokane, Wash. They were ail well and succeeding nicely. I also visited Frank Randle and family of Yakima. They live in a suburb called Fruitvale. They have a good place, only ten minutes ride to the business part of, the city. They live onutbe main highway, which is built of asphalt and the car line passes by their door. I spent two days there' with them. Mrs. Randle’s father, Uncle Eli Wood, and his daughter, "Katheryn, are visiting the Randles this winter. They are very favorably impressed with the country and the city of Yakima, which for its size is perhaps the greatest shipping center in the United States. For the year ending December 31, they sent out produce amounting to over forty nine million dollars, an average of seventy-three car.loads every day for the year. This enormous amount was made up of fruits, hay, grain and sheep. The hills furnish ideal range for sheep. The mild winter climate makes it one of the very best sheep countries, with plenty of water for all purposes. The fruit and farm-land is all under irrigation, so that crop failures are unknown. T am not selling Yakima real estate, so this is not a write-up along that line. It is just my own ideas. I have seen land of various kinds in some twenty-two states and all things taken into consideration I really believe the Yakima Valley has them all 'bsS'tcn. They have produced world prize winning fruit of all kinds and also the world-wide known “Big Potatoes, record winning alfalfa and timothy hay, not to mention wheat, oats, barley and corn. Frank says that he. saw a field of corn that made 80 bushels to the acre. I, being out there in January, did not see it. Well, Louis, I just intended to give you a change in address for my paper and almost forgot what I was writing to you about. Send it to Larimore, North Dakota. I will be up there in ten days or two- weeks for a stay of aboet six weeks. Then II will be on the road for repair work on our Various ice plants. . We got all the houses filled on both the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific, from St. Paul to the coast. It takes a half million tons to fix them up for a year. ■ I landed at Mandan at the coldest they have had this winter, about 18 below zero, and I, having been in a temperature not very much below freezing all winter, am keeping real close to the radiator today: I hear the dinner bell and so think I had better close, trusting that this finds you all as well as it leaves me. I remain your counsin,

SCOTT.