Late Season Forces Richland Fair Delay
An unusually backward growing season forces a two-week postponement of the annual carnival to ensure premium produce displays.
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 committee in charge of the Richland carnival held a meeting on Tuesday evening, at which time it was unanimously decided to change the date of the coming fair to September 15th and 16th, instead of holding it on September 1st and 2nd as had been planned. This change was made necessary by the fact that the present season is unusually backward. Where in previous years all varieties of grapes, apples, and other products for which this district is justly famous were ready for market and display before the first of September, this year it will be at least two weeks later before the apples are fully colored and the different varieties of grapes ready for market. Should the fair be held at the dates first mentioned, the exhibits would of necessity be very much inferior both in quality and quantity to those shown in the past two years, and it would be a shame to take a chance of ruining the unchallenged reputation of the Richland district as being the earliest in the Northwest.
“It would be a shame to take a chance of ruining the unchallenged reputation of the Richland district as being the earliest in the Northwest.”
Agricultural planning in the Tri-Cities remains heavily dictated by the climate, though modern climate shifts have introduced new challenges to long-standing harvest calendars. The 1916 boosterism regarding the district's 'earliest in the Northwest' reputation echoes modern efforts to market the region's unique growing window.
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