Sweetening the Valley: A Wartime Suggestion
With sugar rations looming during the Great War, one local farmer suggests Kennewick turn to home-grown sorghum syrup.
The story, cleaned up
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Now that we are asked to go slow on sugar, it fortunately is within the province of all the farmers living in the Kennewick and other irrigated valleys where corn can be grown, to have all the sweetening they and the whole country can use, by raising sorghum. In 1893 I planted a small patch of it at home here, about 60 feet square—less than 1-10 of an acre. It sub-irrigated from the river and did so well that I made a rude mill, using two pieces of a drift log for rollers; pressed out some of the juice, boiled it down and got 15 gallons of extra fine syrup. At the rate of yield that I got, with a good mill, it would have made 175 to 200 gallons per acre. Sorghum will grow to perfection in the Kennewick valley. A quarter of an acre will give you a whole big 60-gallon barrel of fine syrup. It is a fine table syrup and will take the place of sugar in making all kinds of pies, cakes, and cookies. Besides the syrup, it furnishes a lot of leaves that are better than corn leaves for cow or horse feed. Each stalk has a large cluster of seed at the top that is equal to wheat for poultry feed.
“It will help the Allies. It will help YOU. It will help lick 'BILL.'”
During World War I, community self-sufficiency was touted as a patriotic duty, echoing modern movements toward 'Victory Gardens' and local food security. The Kennewick valley's transition from experimental crops like sorghum to its modern role as a hub for commercial agriculture highlights the town's historical reliance on the irrigation of the Columbia River.
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