Whitman County Farmers Face Harvest Ruin
Record-late rains and grain sack shortages threaten the livelihoods of Washington wheat farmers.
Five days of continuous rain have greatly retarded harvest and damaged a great amount of grain in Whitman County. The harvest is unusually late, fully forty days later than last season, and should the weather settle now, much wheat will be cut in November. The greatest discouragement the farmers have thus far met is the high price of grain sacks and the low price of wheat. Sacks, which ought to sell at 6 cents, cannot be had in sufficient quantities at any price, and those that are offered for sale sell at 10 cents each. Much indignation is expressed at the manner in which the penitentiary sacks were disposed of to outsiders and dealers in grain bags, while the farmers were unable to get them. Many farmers have been forced to build bins in which to store their wheat because of their inability to get sacks.
“Much indignation is expressed at the manner in which the penitentiary sacks were disposed of to outsiders and dealers in grain bags, while the farmers were unable to get them.”
This 1891 report highlights the precarious nature of agriculture in the Inland Northwest, where farmers are at the mercy of both volatile global commodity markets and unpredictable climate patterns. The struggle for resources—like the grain sacks diverted to middlemen—remains a classic story of agrarian labor versus industrial capital.
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