Drought Forces Franklin County Farmers to Pivot
After a difficult harvest hampered by insufficient rainfall and improper cultivation, local ranchers shift to fall-sown wheat.
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Farmers of Franklin county learned by bitter experience this year that fall-sown wheat is the only safe crop for the new county, at least for a time until the ground becomes thoroughly cultivated, said Dr. R. S. Johnson this morning, who is in Walla Walla for a few days from his Franklin county ranch. As a consequence, next year's crop will consist principally of fall wheat. It is true Franklin county had a short wheat crop this year, much shorter in fact than some people suppose, but for all that farmers are not discouraged. They are only disappointed. The pronounced shortage in the year's rainfall was responsible in a great degree for the short crop, though in many instances the land was not properly cultivated. This became apparent when fields properly cultivated lying alongside of those which had been merely plowed produced much better crops. Next year will see much more intelligent methods employed all over the county.
“Farmers of Franklin county learned by bitter experience this year that fall-sown wheat is the only safe crop.”
Agricultural adaptation to climate variability remains a central theme in Eastern Washington. Just as Dr. Johnson's neighbors learned the hard way about soil moisture in 1903, contemporary farmers in the region continue to face pressure to balance yield with increasingly unpredictable water availability.
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