The Wheat Market Grinds to a Halt
Farmers withhold their harvest as prices sag and rain threatens the crop across Eastern Washington.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The only redeeming feature of the wheat market today is the hope farmers hold out that the price of the cereal will advance soon. Prices are still sagging, according to local dealers who gave out quotations of 68 cents for club and around 71 for bluestem today. Absolutely no grain is changing hands at these prices. Farmers are quite firm in their ideas as to the value of the cereal and refuse to part with their holdings, unless their views conform to that of the buyer. A great many say they prefer to pay warehouse charges in lieu of selling at present prices, and a great many being in comfortable circumstances are not compelled to sell. Heavy rains during the week have caused some damage, particularly in the Palouse and Big Bend districts, and at the present writing it would be difficult to estimate the amount of damage that has been done, as so much depends on the weather from now on. About 50 per cent of the crop has been cut north of the Snake River. Of this, 25 per cent has been threshed, 30 per cent cut and the balance still standing.
“A great many say they prefer to pay warehouse charges in lieu of selling at present prices.”
Eastern Washington remains the breadbasket of the state, but the tension between farmers holding out for better prices and the global commodities market remains a constant cycle. Today, as in 1903, the health of the local economy is dictated by climate, storage capacity, and the fickle nature of the global grain trade.
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