Farming Opportunities - Early 1900s - Washington and Montana

A set of cards issued by one of the transcontinental railroads to advertise agricultural opportunities along the railway in the early 1900s ... 1910 plus or minus a few years.

Diversified Farming and Fruit Growing in
Eastern Washington

Harvesting Large Acreages of Wheat in
Washington

Note:  In the card above, that's about 26 horsepower (if we counted correctly) back when a horsepower was a "horse power"! We are curious ... How did they determine the number of horses needed for this work? Trial and error? Some sort of scientific formula? Also, how long could they work the horses at one time? How much acreage could they cover in one day? The back of the card suggests 50 to 60 acres.

Oats from the Gallatin Valley, Montana, Won
Grand Prize at New York Land Show

Picking Apples in the Famous Fruit Growing Kittitas
Valley, Washington, near Ellensburg

Thank you for stopping by John's Island.

Almanac Update

Early this morning (July 11, 2014) we snapped this photo of the nearly full moon riding above the Emerald City.  The exact time of full moon is still about one day away, per this from space.com ... Jul. 12, 4:25 a.m. PDT: Full Buck Moon —This lunar moniker stems from the fact that this season is typically when the new antlers of buck deer push out from their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, thunderstorms being now most frequent.  Sometimes it's also called the Full Hay Moon.