The Hazards of the Harvest
Industrial machinery brings pain to the fields as two laborers are severely injured in separate harvest accidents.
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.
While working on a combined harvester on the Ennis ranch this morning, a harvest hand named Laney got two fingers caught in a cog wheel. Before he could jerk his hand away, the members had been fearfully crushed and ground. The injured man was brought to the city immediately and had his wounds dressed. Unless blood poisoning sets in, his injuries will not prove serious, beyond the loss of the two fingers. This is the second harvest accident of the season; A. M. Robinson, a prominent farmer four miles southwest of town, was caught beneath a derrick Sunday morning and badly crushed. His injuries are serious and it will be some time before he can attend to his duties.
“Before he could jerk his hand away the members had been fearfully crushed and ground.”
Agriculture has always been dangerous work, and while machinery has become safer and more automated, the fundamental risk of rural labor persists. These accounts illustrate the human cost behind the grain-driven economy that built the Walla Walla valley.
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