The Boom on White River

Times are booming on White river and the Stuck just now. It is safe to say that it will be a long time before the like can possibly occur again. Those who have 'taken time by the forelock' and have got something to sell, are in luck. The hundreds of laboring men on the different lines of railroad on the east side of the Sound now being built, or in operation, have got to be fed. Good wages are paid, both for common and skilled labor, besides team work is required. All this, in addition to the new ventures in hop-raising, the building of the new storage and drying houses that are going up in all directions, demonstrates that the good time so long desired for by our valley farmers has indeed come at last. The contrast between the past and present is most striking. Three years ago sheep were bought for only two dollars per head; now, spring lambs bring over three dollars; potatoes, $1 per bushel; stock hogs 6 1/2 cents per pound gross. Land has gone way up beyond the reach of ordinary purchasers. One small inferior farm of fifteen acres brought $900. Another of 40 acres, vine maple bottom, but no improvement whatever, sold for $50 per acre. The railroad now building runs most of the way back from the river through the low bottoms. These low bottoms will now be cleared up and drained. There are about 10,000 acres of these uncleared low lands, lying between the Stuck river and the Stuck river bridge, that will produce from two to three tons of hay per acre. Were it not for the building of the road, these low bottoms would have remained unproductive for years to come.