The great staple of this country is wheat, though almost every crop is grown, and most of them with remarkable results. Corn is grown only south of Snake River, where it yields thirty bushels to the acre. The average yield of wheat year by year for the entire Territory is put by Governor Squire at twenty-five bushels, and no one who knows the country can regard this otherwise than as a moderate estimate. This average places Washington Territory beyond comparison first among the States of America, and, so far as I can learn, second only to England among other nations. England, by the highest manuring, has brought her wheat product up to thirty bushels, which is double the average of former years. By the census of 1880, Washington Territory, as a whole, leads all the other States. The following tables give the average of ten of the chief wheat-producing States: WHEAT, PER ACRE. BUSHELS. California 15.8 Dakota 10.6 Minnesota 11.3 New York 15.7 Ohio 18.0 Pennsylvania 13.4 Virginia 8.6 Washington Territory 23.5 Oregon 16.8 Illinois 15.5 The year 1886 was the worst wheat year ever known in Washington Territory: its crop averaged sixteen and a half bushels. [Sidenote: Railroads overwhelmed with freight.] It is thought that the wheat crop of East Washington for 1887 will exceed 10,000,000 bushels. It certainly went far beyond the ability of the railroads to carry it away before winter. The most amazing glut of freight I have ever seen was along the railroads in Walla Walla County. Not only were the depots crowded to the roof, but piles of sacks larger than the depots stood outside. It was a common sight through the whole Snake River country to see 10,000 sacks of wheat in one pile outside of the depots. [Sidenote: Price of wheat and cost of production.] The price of wheat runs from 40 cents to 60 cents a bushel; whilst the cost of production on good land need not exceed 25 cents a bushel. Mr. Hamilton, of Colfax, has a farm which he cultivates entirely by hired labor, and he told me that the cost of his wheat was from 20 cents to 25 cents, and that his profit was $5 per acre. Good farms about Colfax can be rented out at $2.50 per acre for the whole farm. Mr. Miles C. Moore, of Walla Walla, probably the most exact business man of that region, farms largely by hiring labor. He gave me the following statement of his own operations: WHEAT GROWING AND DELIVERING.