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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1902 | 15 |
| 1903 | 47 |
| 1904 | 26 |
47 stories
- A Farm Paper Accuses Olympia of Auctioning a Senate Seat
After the 1903 legislature adjourned, The Ranch blasted lawmakers for graft, railroad favoritism, a $3.25 million budget and $125,000 in fair appropriations.
- Yakima's Water Was Not for Sale
A farm paper accuses the Washington Irrigation Co. of trying to monopolize Yakima Valley reservoirs — and of bullying the legislature to get them.
- The Great Butterine Debate
A Seattle agricultural journal takes a hard stance against the 'fraud' of oleomargarine, arguing that the industry's decline is a moral victory for farmers.
- The War on 'Embalmed' Milk
State Dairy and Food Commissioner E. A. McDonald reflects on the rise of Washington's dairy industry and his crusade against chemical preservatives in the food supply.
- The 'Specialists' of First Avenue
A predatory medical institute promises secret cures for 'youthful indiscretions' and 'lost vitality' from their downtown Seattle office.
- Seattle's Farm Paper Says No to Paying for Portland's World's Fair
As The Oregonian promised a $100,000 state appropriation for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial, a Seattle agricultural journal argued the money would be better spent on roads and irrigation — and doubted the crowds would ever show up.
- The Battle for the Range
Federal scientists head to Eastern Washington to investigate the environmental toll of overgrazing by sheep.
- The Great Horticultural Graft
A scathing editorial from The Ranch magazine accuses the state legislature of creating a bloated, ineffective bureaucracy under the guise of agricultural protection.
- Seattle's Milk Supply Caught in a Secret Trust
A quiet combination of milk dealers and a new condensed milk company threatens to control prices, squeeze out independents, and lock Skagit farmers into low-paying contracts.
- The Legal Trap of Unsurveyed Land
A legal clarification reveals that heirs of homesteaders on unsurveyed land in Washington may lose their claims entirely upon the settler's death.
- The Five-Gallon Pickle Jar That Held Three, and Other Cheats of 1907
Washington's pure food commissioner reports that the milk of Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane is clean — but the packages on the shelf are not what they claim, and he wants the legislature to make him inspector of weights and measures too.
- The Battle for the Irrigation Ditch
North Yakima residents clash with the city council over the right to water their gardens after a street grading project cuts off their supply.
- The Business of the Orchard
A Yakima Valley fruit grower shares his pragmatic, profit-driven approach to orchard management, from battling codling moths to the economics of the Ben Davis apple.
- Formaldehyde in the Milk
The Fashion Cafe sues the Royal Dairy and Dairy Commissioner McDonald for $7,500, claiming the milk it was served was laced with embalming fluid — and that the official paid to police the dairies knew all about it.
- The Milk That Made Kent Grow
Kent's condenseries turn White River Valley milk into Carnation and baby food, and a struggling village becomes a dairy boomtown.
- Budget Cuts Silence Washington's Farmers' Institutes
A Pullman college president tells The Ranch that six or seven faculty posts were cut, leaving no one free to carry agricultural lectures into the countryside in 1903.
- Drilling for Water Under Washington's Dry Wheat Country
A federal geologist probes the desert east of the Columbia and the Big Bend wheatlands to see whether deep wells can water the dry interior — and finds pressure underground, but no free-flowing artesian springs.
- Governor's Veto Shuts Down Puyallup Experiment Station
A $12,000 legislative appropriation for the branch agricultural station is vetoed, forcing the college to lease the land and sell the livestock.
- The Alfalfa Controversy
A Kansas farmer warns that the popular forage crop may be causing health issues in work horses, sparking a debate among Pacific Northwest agriculturalists.
- The Perils of Planting: A Warning to Yakima Valley Orchardists
A local agricultural expert debunks state-sanctioned advice on walnut cultivation, warning farmers against the financial ruin of planting untried varieties.
- Two Farmers Who Started With Nothing and Built Dairy Fortunes
A Scandinavian immigrant with no money and an Ilwaco homesteader who once lacked even winter underclothing became models of dairy success through testing, breeding, and relentless work.
- 'Only Another Name for a Sort of Annual Picnic': Washington's Road-Tax Fight
A good-roads convention hears that farmers resent paying their road tax in cash instead of working it out, that the money vanishes into 'graft or rake-off,' and that Spokane County's section-line roads were laid out so badly they must be rebuilt from scratch.
- How an old mining ditch and a boulder patch became a $6,000 orchard
A correspondent's tour of the Methow valley and the benches above Pateros finds peaches by the boxcar, seven-pound carrots, and a warning that California land had already outrun the poor man.
- Who Really Raised the Price of Milk?
A White River dairyman writes back: the condensery isn't being generous — feed, hired hands and land rent have all doubled, and the company still pays as little as it can get away with.
- A Backyard Chemistry Disaster
An attempt to follow official advice for killing aphids leads to a dangerous explosion in a Tacoma garden.