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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1897 | 7 |
| 1898 | 16 |
| 1899 | 1 |
24 stories matching experiment
- The Railroad’s 160-Acre Bet on Cotton in the Columbia Basin
The O.R.N. set aside land near Wallula to test cotton, sorghum, peanuts, tobacco, and more—with and without irrigation—and invited farmers to copy the results.
- Turning Alkali Wasteland into Productive Soil
A Yakima farmer reports a successful experiment in reclaiming unusable alkali land through irrigation and flooding.
- The Great Sheep Dip Controversy
A heated editorial battle erupts over federal government advice on treating sheep scab, pitting industry experts against bureaucratic mandates.
- The Great Potato Feeding Experiment
Agricultural researchers in the late 1890s tested whether potatoes, mangels, or sugar beets were the most profitable feed for range-raised lambs.
- The Fatal Dance of Washington's Ground Squirrels
Scientists at the state agricultural college tried to wipe out crop-destroying rodents with bacteria—and found a native plague that sent infected squirrels spinning until they dropped.
- Yakima's Experiment Station Bets on a Twelve-Foot Wonder Crop
The Northern Pacific test plots at Yakima prove Japanese hemp flourishes in the valley, and a Pacific-coast expert predicts a lucrative new staple for Washington and Oregon.
- When the Brewery Trust Told a State Inspector to Bring It On
A dairy commissioner orders dairymen to stop feeding cows wet brewers' grain. The Seattle Brewing and Malting Co. writes back that the National Brewers' Association will fund the fight — and dares him to take it to court.
- The Weed That Beat Wheat Hay
A Cheney-area farmer's experiment with prickly lettuce convinced him the despised weed was better cattle feed than his best wheat and oat hay.
- The Railroad Barons and the Range Wars
Northern Pacific executives visit Yakima to defend their controversial new land-leasing system against local sheepmen.
- The Campaign for Wide-Tired Wagons
A push for state legislation to mandate wider wagon tires to preserve Washington's rural roads from destruction.
- The Klondike Nugget: A New Yakima Valley Fruit
After nearly two decades of experimentation, a local farmer unveils a plum variety that promises to outshine the industry standard.
- The Future of Farming at Washington Agricultural College
A visit to the Pullman campus reveals the experimental work being done to improve Eastern Washington's agricultural yields.
- Two Hundred Feet of Solid Rock: The Well That Might End Yakima's Water War
For years, the old settlers of the lower Ahtanum and the newcomers up on the bench lands have fought it out in the Yakima courts over who owns the creek. Now four farmers are betting on an artesian well instead — and paying for it out of their own pockets.
- The Great Soil Debate of 1897
A Washington agricultural expert challenges the common practice of summer-fallowing, warning that the method is depleting the state's soil nitrogen and threatening long-term fertility.
- The Business of Better Breeding
A Kittitas farmer shares his success in upgrading his dairy herd, proving that selective breeding and data-driven management were the keys to agricultural prosperity in the 1890s.
- The Debts a Country Owes Its Farmers — and Its Farmers' Wives
An 1898 farm-column editorial tallies what rural Washington neglects: untrained road supervisors, school directors so illiterate the legislature had to bar them, and farm women who never see a newspaper or a neighbor.
- The Fruit Boom on Orcas Island
A local resident reports on the rapid agricultural expansion of the San Juan Islands, predicting a tenfold increase in fruit production.
- Turning Salt Flats into Wheat Fields
A Yakima sheepman discovers how to reclaim abandoned alkali-ridden soil through careful irrigation.
- A 50-Year Teamster Tells the Legislature to Keep Its Hands Off His Wagon Wheels
A Moran Prairie farmer pushes back against a Seattle-backed bill to mandate wide wagon tires, arguing that city men who never drove a loaded team shouldn't legislate for the men who do.
- The Orchardist Who Told the State Its Moth Spraying Was Useless
In 1898, a North Yakima grower argued that the state's codlin-moth spray schedule did not fit the Yakima Valley's climate—and warned that apple and pear growing might be doomed without better field science.
- They Called the Prairie Worthless. He Planted Wheat Anyway.
A government immigration inspector bought gravelly land south of Tacoma and proved the skeptics wrong — sixteen bushels an acre of No. 1 hard wheat.
- When Every Eastern Market Was Swamped: The 1897 Fruit Glut That Broke Northwest Growers
A Northwest agricultural writer tallies the wreckage of a boom season — glutted markets, freight and icing bills nobody could pay, and a blunt prescription for growers: dry your prunes and hold for a price.
- The Wholesaler Tells the Growers the Truth: 'We Don't Love You'
Sixteen years in the Seattle commission trade and no patience left, R. Merchant tells a room of fruit growers that no middleman has ever cared about them — and that neat, uniform packing, not grievance, is the only thing that ever got a farmer paid.
- Don't Bond the Valley to a Dry Ditch
A Wenatchee editor warns that a $100,000 Wright-law irrigation bond would repeat the Kennewick failure—leaving settlers with debt, abandoned orchards, and no water.