The Near-Miss that Saved the Orchard Boom
Anxious farmers watch the thermometer as a late-spring frost threatens to wipe out the region's record-breaking fruit potential.
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.
For some little time past there have been fears of a frost that would sweep away the flattering promises for a fruit crop. The frequent rains of late, with colder weather succeeding, had given cause for these fears, but the winds kept the frost back until Sunday morning, when the breeze died down and the dreaded mantle of white descended. That day anxiety and regret were pictured on all faces and there were grave forebodings of a total destruction of the fruit crop. That afternoon and the next day there were anxious inquiries after the different sections, and with each succeeding inquiry and answer a portion of the gloom was chased away, and now that we are in the position to speak we can conscientiously say that every indication gives reason for the belief that Yakima will have by all odds the greatest fruit crop in her history.
“That day anxiety and regret were pictured on all faces and there were grave forebodings of a total destruction of the fruit crop.”
Yakima's agricultural identity was forged in this era; the anxiety expressed here reflects the high-stakes reality for settlers who bet their livelihoods on the valley's irrigation potential.
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