Harvesting Begins on the Skagit Flats
Farmers in the Skagit Valley report massive yields, even as they face challenges with potato blight and the historic Skagit River 'jam.'
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.
I feel compelled to write again, though it is an unusual freak of mine to write you two mails in succession. The Yakima came over from Port Gamble yesterday and took on board the first cargo of barley shipped from the Swinomish of this year's crop. Messrs. O’Loughlin and Wilks, who are farming on a large scale on Mr. O’Connor’s lands, are the enterprising farmers who furnished this cargo. The farmers, so far, appear to be getting on finely with their harvesting. Sir O’Loughlin informed me to-day that the yield per acre of the poorest part of his barley will average seventy bushels. I am sorry to have to report that the potato crop on the islands and in the valley of the Skagit has been materially damaged by the blight. Mr. H. Wright, the mail carrier from La Conner to Skagit City, reports to-day that a passage has been opened through the lower jam, and it is supposed that the boys will immediately move up to work on the upper jam.
“The flats appear to be swarming with men.”
The Skagit Valley remains a critical agricultural hub for Washington today, though the 'jams' (massive logjams that obstructed river navigation) have long been replaced by modern flood management and dredging infrastructures.
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