In the decade of the '70s there came to Walla Walla a man destined to leave upon the entire region the impress of one of the most remarkable characters in far vision, noble aims, and philanthropic disposition that ever lived within the State of Washington. We refer to Dr. N. G. Blalock. Eminent in his profession, his ceaseless industry and progressive aims did more perhaps than any other single life to broaden and advance all phases of the section in which he lived and wrought. He was the pioneer in wheat raising on large scale, as well as in many other lines of activity and experiment. Making, though not retaining, several fortunes, his life work was to mark out the way for others less venturesome, to follow to success not alone in the acquirement of wealth, but in the nobler and more enduring products of education, philanthropy, patriotism, public service, and genuine piety. Coming to Walla Walla in 1872 and entering at once upon an extensive medical practice, Doctor Blalock had a vision of the future as well as the capacity to utilize at once the varied opportunities offered by the soil, the climate, and the location. He saw the splendid wild acres of land by the thousands lying in all directions and determined to make a thorough test of its adaptability to raise wheat on a large scale. He made a bargain for a tract of 2,200 acres six miles south of Walla Walla for a price of ten bushels of wheat per acre, to be paid from the first crop. The expense of breaking so large a body of land was great, but the first crop yielded thirty-one bushels per acre, a sufficient demonstration of the capacity of the land.
In 1881 the crop on the tract averaged thirty-five and one-fourth bushels, while 1,000 acres of it yielded 51,000 bushels. The acreage and the yield, very carefully ascertained, was reported to the Government and stood then, and probably does yet, as the largest yield from that amount of land ever reported. Even more remarkable yields, but on smaller areas, have been known. Milton Aldrich produced on his Dry Creek ranch, on 400 acres, an average of sixty-six bushels of wheat and the next year there was a volunteer crop of forty bushels. Recently in the same vicinity Arthur Cornwell obtained an average of seventy-three bushels per acre. A hundred and ten bushels of barley per acre have been grown on the Gilkerson ranch on Mill Creek.
An item of historic interest may be found in an estimate of cost made for a special number of the Union during the first years of the industry by Joseph Harbert, one of the most prominent pioneers and successful farmers in the valley. The crop was on 400 acres, which yielded 10,000 bushels of blue-stem wheat. At fifty cents per bushel for the crop, this will be seen to represent a profit of about two thousand three hundred dollars from land worth $12,000, or nearly twenty per cent. from which, however, should come wages of management.
The land was summer fallowed in 1894 and valued at thirty dollars per acre. The estimate is in a locality where water and material to work with are reasonably convenient. The land is not very hilly and comparatively easy to work. The report is as follows:
It may be added that estimates of cost by a number of prominent farmers in the period of 1890 and thereabouts, indicated that the expense of sowing, seeding, harvesting, and putting into the warehouse, ran from twenty-one to forty cents a bushel, varying according to locality, yield, and other conditions.
At a usual price of fifty or sixty cents a bushel, there was not a large margin above the interest on investment, maintenance of stock, machinery, improvements, and taxes. Nevertheless the farmers of this section felt every encouragement to continue, unless it were in the evil harvest year of 1893-4, when the price ran about twenty-five to thirty-five cents a bushel, and when rains, floods, strikes, and general calamity threatened to engulf, and did actually engulf some of the best farms. It is a historical fact that had it not been for the liberality of the banks in the four counties south of Snake River, which held obligations from a large number of the best-known farmers, there would have been widespread disaster. Thanks to the banks, as well as to the persistence and fortitude of the farmers and the solid resources of the country, these counties emerged from those years of depression with less injury and repaired their losses more quickly than any other section of the entire Northwest, or perhaps of the whole country.
It may be added in connection with cost of wheat raising, that within the years since the opening of the present century there has been an enormous outlay by farmers in all kinds of farm machinery, the combines having become the usual means of harvesting, and traction engines for the combines and to some degree for plowing having superseded horse power. But cost of labor and general rise of prices have pushed up expenses, until now the most of farmers would estimate the cost of a bushel of wheat at fifty cents or more, some say even a dollar. As an offset to this there has come a great advance in price, insomuch that the farmers of Walla Walla and its sister counties have become the lords of the land. One of the most pleasing results of this new order of things is that the farmers, being almost entirely free from debt, have begun to build comfortable and even elegant homes, both on the farms and in the cities and to surround themselves with the conveniences of life, as automobiles, and to spend money in travel and luxuries which make some of the old-timers, accustomed to the deprivations of pioneer days, open their eyes with wonder, and possibly even disapproval. It is not observable, however, that the young folks on the farms have any backwardness in utilizing the good things of life which are the logical consummation of the foresight and industry of parents and grandparents. It is probable that no people in the United States have more reliable and steady incomes and greater sources for all the needs and enjoyments of life than do the farmers of old Walla Walla County.
The experience of other sections was similar to that of the region immediately around Walla Walla. The first thought was of stock ranges, with such small patches of farming land adjacent to the creeks as might supply the family needs. It is stated that Elisha Ping and G. W. Miller raised crops of wheat and oats on the present site of Dayton in 1860. For the oats they received seven cents a pound and for the wheat two dollars a bushel. The location of the subsequent Dayton became a regular station on the stage line from Walla Walla to Lewiston, and that fact led J. M. Pomeroy, a little later the founder of the town named for him, to raise a crop of barley for horse feed. That was in 1863. As time passed on, and especially after the founding of flouring mills by S. M. Wait, there came a general movement to raise grain crops on the hills and plains and it was discovered, as a little earlier around Walla Walla, that the entire region was the very home land for grain. Within a few years it was found that barley of especially fine quality and heavy yield was one of the best crops, and Columbia County has become the center of barley production. Almost the entire county, with the exception of the timbered mountain belt, has become a grain field. Within recent years the region around and particularly east of Dayton has become the leading center of corn production.