The Miracle Crop of Pine Place
A Snohomish County farmer introduces a mysterious, giant grain he claims out-yields every other variety in the region.
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.
There is nothing like this celebrated grain in America. It will yield a third more to the acre than any other grain grown on the same kind of soil with similar treatment. It grows like rye, hence is frequently called Mammoth Rye. The berry resembles wheat, only it is two or three times as large, some grains being one-half inch long. It ripens the earliest of any grain grown here if sown in the fall, and as early as any other grain if sown in the spring. The seed was procured in the East and planted the past spring. The crop is thoroughly matured and is offered for sale in one-pound packages at 35 cents per pound. They will be sent by mail to any address at that price, with 8 cents added for postage. Orders left with L. D. West at Snohomish City, W. T., will be promptly attended to, or address G. T. Sorenson, Pine Place, Snohomish County, W. T.
“It will yield a third more to the acre than any other grain grown on the same kind of soil.”
Long before Snohomish became a suburban hub, it was a frontier laboratory for agricultural experimentation. This 19th-century hype over 'Diamond Wheat' mirrors the modern search for sustainable, high-yield crops to survive climate shifts in the Pacific Northwest.
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