The Transformation of Whidbey’s Bottomlands
A local correspondent dispatches a vivid account of agricultural modernization on Whidbey Island, capturing the shift from back-breaking scythe work to the era of mechanized farming.
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.
WHIDBEY ISLAND, Jan. 1st, 1877. A dancing school has been in operation here for the past several weeks every Saturday evening in the spacious hall of the school building. The pupils and visitors present threaded the intricate figures of the quadrille, succeeding each other in rapid succession until 11 o'clock. We have had pleasant and humid weather so far; farmers have been busy plowing the uplands, clearing and piling brush, and ditching. We paid a visit some time since to the farm of Mr. Geo. W. Morse. This gentleman has been putting several improvements on his place, including a new tide-gate and a deepened gravel outlet flowing into Dungeness Bay. Mr. Morse has made some choice butter this past season, pasturing cows on red-top grass. We noticed two large hay sheds, one of which is 60 by 100 feet and well-filled. Mr. Morse informs us that he has sold 1,500 tons of hay from his place during the present year. In the past, he employed a number of men with hand scythes, making it a long and expensive job; wages were then $2 per day and board. Now, this gentleman is fully alive to the requirements of 1877 and has one of the famous 'Clipper' mowers, a Lucky horse-rake, a hay-feeder, and a horse hay pitchfork, which removes a large load of hay into a shed in five minutes. Hay goes from three to four tons to the acre, according to the manner of drainage.
“In the past, he employed a number of men with hand scythes, making it a long and expensive job; wages were then $2 per day and board. Now, this gentleman is fully alive to the requirements of 1877.”
This report highlights the 19th-century 'agritech' revolution on Whidbey Island, where land drainage and mechanization turned marshy tide flats into productive bounty. Today, the struggle over these same floodplains persists, as modern conservationists and farmers negotiate the balance between industrial agriculture and the ecological restoration of Puget Sound salmon habitat.
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