The Cricket War at Stratford
Farmers in Stratford scramble to maintain ditches as a massive migration of crickets threatens to devour wheat fields.
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Another call is expected daily to help check the crickets. The six miles of ditches cut are full and the pests are going over them into the wheat fields. There should be men to keep the ditches cleaned. The Wenatchee-Stratford Orchard company has a force of men making ditches on its land. The cricket army is reported to be within a mile and a half of Wilson Creek.
“The six miles of ditches cut are full and the pests are going over them into the wheat fields.”
Agricultural infestations remain a high-stakes challenge for Eastern Washington farmers, echoing this 1916 struggle to protect regional wheat yields from natural disaster.
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