More than one-half of the cereal crop in 1905 was produced in the prairie and plateau region of Nez Perce and Latah counties.
The production of orchard fruits (apples, cherries, peaches, pears, plums and prunes) increased greatly from 1889 to 1899; the six counties of Ada, Canyon (probably the leading fruit county of the state), Latah (famous for apples), Washington, Owyhee and Nez Perce had in 1900 89% of the plum and prune trees, 85% of all pear trees, 78% of all cherry trees, and 74% of all apple trees in the state, and in 1906 it was estimated by the State Commissioner of Immigration that there were nearly 48,000 acres of land devoted to orchard fruits in Idaho.
According to state reports for 1906, most of the neat cattle were then on ranges in Lemhi, Idaho, Washington, Cassia and Owyhee counties; Nez Perce, Canyon, Fremont, Idaho, and Washington counties had the largest number of horses; Owyhee, Blaine and Canyon counties had the largest numbers of sheep, and Idaho and Nez Perce counties were the principal swine-raising regions.
Of these tribes, the Nez Perce and Ceeur d'Alene were self-supporting; the other tribes were in 1900 dependent upon the United States government for 30% of their rations.
The first recorded exploration of Idaho by white men was made by Lewis and Clark, who passed along the Snake river to its junction with the Columbia; in 1805 the site of Fort Lemhi in Lemhi county was a rendezvous for two divisions of the Lewis and Clark expedition; later, the united divisions reached a village of the Nez Perce Indians near the south fork of the Clearwater river, where they found traces of visits by other white men.
