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[[preprinted]] 127 [[/preprinted]]

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even these areas are frequently quite broken and rocky in spots.  The soil is light and varies from 8 or 9 inches to 2 inches in depth; a clay mixed with stone which can not be broken by a spade or plow forms the sub stratum.  Here as elsewhere the good soil lies in slopes facing the East or North, the steeper the slope the deeper the soil. on the level land the soil is quite shallow, and on the slopes to the South & west, there is but little & frequently [[insert]] only [[/insert]] bare rocks.  Even in this more favored locality is rare to find 160 acres in compact form which can all be plowed.  This renders a fair and just grading of this land a difficult and exacting task. I am obliged frequently to go over every 40 acres to decide how much should be rated as agricultural, and how much as grazing land in allotting these Indians.  The surveyor, Mr. Edson D. Briggs, has had more experience in grading land than anyone else in this region as he located & graded the South Pacific R.R. land and located & graded the land of the Oregon Improvement Company, and he expresses himself as to the difficulties here and admits the trying character of the task.

I am more particular than I should otherwise [[insert]] in this task of grading [[/insert]] be because of the strong local feeling about the reservation as to this characterization of the land. While many white men