The Walla Walla Wheat Market Stirs
After weeks of inactivity, farmers begin selling their blue stem harvest as international market prices climb.
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The first indication of a tendency on the part of Walla Walla county farmers to let loose their holdings at prevailing prices became apparent late yesterday afternoon when J. C. Scott, local manager for William Jones, was able to buy 10,000 bushels of choice blue stem. The lot, which is the first of any consequence to be sold during the past three weeks, commanded the top price, 71.5 cents on board. The sudden rise in the Liverpool market yesterday and today had a tendency to advance local quotations from a half to a cent a bushel. Liverpool opened this morning at 6 shillings and 7 pence, the highest point reached in a year and a half. The lack of stock on the way to England and bullish news from foreign wheat countries are the attributed causes of the sudden rise.
“The lack of stock on the way to England and 'bullish' news from foreign wheat countries are the attributed causes of the sudden rise.”
Walla Walla's economy was once entirely defined by the international price of grain. Today, the local agriculture sector has diversified, but the region still reacts sharply to global commodities markets just as it did in 1903.
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