Kennewick Celebrates its First 'Wormless' Corn Crop
Local farmers are puzzled and pleased as the 1915 sweet corn crop arrives remarkably free of worm damage.
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.
Kennewick’s 1915 crop of sweet corn has arrived with an unusual distinction: it is largely wormless. Farmers have offered varying theories for the phenomenon. W. S. Hart attributes it to the local quail population, which he claims has been kept busy eating bugs and worms on his ranch. N. C. Bowles suggests that the sheer volume of this year's corn acreage simply overwhelmed the worm population, while another local rancher jokingly suggests the worms have all migrated to the apple orchards. Regardless of the reason, the town is enjoying a bumper crop of high-quality roasting ears.
“A dozen roasting ears this year means all cereal and not half livestock, as in times past.”
Stories about local agricultural successes were a staple of early 20th-century boom-era newspapers, serving as both market promotion and local pride. Today, the focus has shifted from the health of the corn to the complex water rights and soil health that sustain the region's produce.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.