The Yakima Valley's Great Hop Boom
Farmers across the Yakima region are racing to plant hops, betting that local soil and climate will dominate the industry as neighboring districts struggle with pests.
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The Herald has maintained for several years past that the Yakima country was destined to be the hop center of the northwest. It has supported this belief on the grounds that the climate and soil were especially adapted to this industry, and that there was no danger here from vermin. The progress towards this end has been slow in the past, but this year it is leaping forward with Brobdingnagian strides. It is impossible to get a full list of those who are planting, for, as one of the older hop growers remarked, everybody is going into the business. Mr. Charles Carpenter says it is difficult to make estimates with any degree of accuracy, but he thinks the new yards will aggregate between one and two thousand acres. It is reported that a hundred acres in the Sunnyside country will be planted to this crop.
“The progress towards this end has been slow in the past, but this year it is leaping forward with Brobdingnagian strides.”
In the 1890s, the Yakima Valley saw a massive shift toward intensive agriculture, fueled by irrigation and land speculation. This hop boom was a precursor to the massive agricultural industry that defines the region today, often pitting local boosters against the reality of biological threats to crops.
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