OUT FROM THE DALLES.
At 3:30 p. m. on March 14 I drove out from The Dalles. I have always felt that here was the real starting point, as from here there could be no more shipping, but all driving. By rail, it is 1,734 miles from The Dalles to Omaha, where our work on the old Trail ends. By wagon road the distance is greater, but not much, probably 1,800 miles. The load was heavy as well as the roads. With a team untrained to the road, and one ox unbroken, and no experienced ox driver, and the grades heavy, small wonder if a feeling of depression crept over me. On some long hills we could move up but one or two lengths of the wagon and team at a time, and on level roads, with the least warm sun, the unbroken ox would poke out his tongue. He was like the young sprig just out of school, with muscles soft and breath short.
The First Boulder Marked.
CAMP 27—MARCH 27.
As we drew into camp a young man with eight horses approached the creek. "What do you do with so many horses, lad?" I queried, as the drove passed with their heads down and traces dangling around their bodies. "Why, I have been harrowing in wheat today, up on the hill; it's pretty tough work at that." "No, you see our horses are not large," responding to an inquiry about eight horses to one harrow, "and besides you see they are not in very good condition; the fact is, our feed has run short and we have put them on short rations," and the horses looked it, with their heads down as they came away from the creek. "Why, we usually harrow 35 acres for a full day's work, sometimes; but 40 acres is called a big day's run." "Yes, I can plow seven acres a day, which is a fair day's work—too much, perhaps, with this team, but with a good, strong team one can easily turn over eight acres." "Let me see," he continued, in response to further inquiries; "let me see. I think with what winter wheat we have in there'll be over 400 acres; we expect a yield of 20 bushels an acre, but some have got as high as 30." "Why, we got a dollar last year right here," this in response to a question as to price.
A nearby neighbor who had 600 acres in wheat said they expected a good yield this year as there "had been 14 inches rainfall already for the season, while the average was but 10."
"Well, of course it's a pretty good business with wheat at a dollar," which was in evidence at the next camp where a new fifteen hundred dollar automobile was snugly housed ready for use. This man had 1,200 acres of land. "Why, yes, of course we have neighbors; Neighbor R—— lives but two miles off and then there's Neighbor B—— not three."