THE WHEAT PLATEAU.

The wheat belt includes principally the area within the big bend of the Columbia river, the "Big Bend Country," which stretches eastward until it blends with the rolling Palouse, one of the richest farm regions in the northwest, and southeast across the Snake River to the Blue Mountains; although considerable wheat is raised in the country lying between the Columbia and the Cascades, as well as in the four counties to the north. The green carpet is visible, in spring, and the waving heads of yellow grain, in summer, extending away to the horizon. The combined harvester, drawn by thirty-six horses, is a familiar example of the immensity of the machinery needed when gathering the mammoth crop, which for the entire state is in the neighborhood of 50,000,000 bushels annually.

The Big Bend is broken in places by "coulees" or old river courses, sometimes 500 to 600 feet in depth, where irrigation is practiced and where strings of small alkali lakes have been scattered. Two of the most important are Moses Coulee in Douglas county, and Grand Coulee forming the boundary line between Douglas and Grant counties, said to be the old bed of the Columbia. Almost surrounded by the wheat belt lies the Quincy Valley, containing 435,000 acres of level fertile land to be some day irrigated by water conducted under the Columbia river from Wenatchee Lake in Chelan county.

The best known lakes include Soap Lake, a health resort, Moses Lake, near which irrigation from wells is successfully carried on, and Rock Lake, a rock bound sheet of water in the Palouse. The most important river is the Palouse which creates the Palouse Falls just before joining the Snake River. Near this stream are several prosperous cities, including Colfax, Palouse, and Pullman, the home of the State College and Experiment Station.

[PRIEST RAPIDS—SADDLE MOUNTAINS BEYOND]

THE WALLA WALLA COUNTRY.

The Snake river, largest tributary of the Columbia, with a canyon of 1,500 feet, cuts this plateau in two, and forms a natural dividing line between Whitman and Franklin counties on the north, and Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, and Asotin on the south. Its warm canyon is famous for early fruits and berries which are shipped in carloads to eastern and western points.

Fields of wheat, barley or rye extend southward in all four counties to the Blue Mountains, interrupted occasionally by orchards which assume their greatest proportions in the beautiful Touchet and Walla Walla valleys. Over this rich country the fair city of Walla Walla reigns supreme, her authority being limited only by the Columbia and Snake rivers, or the Blue Mountains; although Waitsburg, Dayton, Pomeroy and Clarkston are important centers in their own districts.

Steeped in historical associations is this valley, from Wallula, the site of the first Hudson's Bay fort, to the city of Walla Walla. When once seen, no words are needed to tell why these lovely plains, all ready for the planting and moistened with sufficient rainfall annually, were so attractive to the early settlers, and inspired the first serious efforts at colonization.