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WHITLEY BOTTOM.
What is known as Whitley bottom is an area of about three thousand acres lying along the east bank of the Snake river and between it and the bench lands of Payette valley. Its entire extent is almost as level as a floor and its surface is but little above that of the river. When the river is running high in the spring, water sets back into a number of channels, forming miniature lakes and ponds which afford facilities for irrigation later on. . For this reason it was selected by the earlier settlers for the location of cattle and hay ranches. Many thousand head of stock have been wintered there in times gone by, and some are yet, but the falling off of the cattle business and the improvement of the higher lands have enlarged the feeding area once confined to the river lands. Whitley bottom is now under the ditch of the Payette Valley Irrigation and Water Power Company and is a fine tract for general farming.