The Man Who Sold Yakima Valley a New Miracle Crop Every Week

He makes it appear the industry is in a remarkably flourishing condition in the valley; the growers are shipping the stuff out in large loads and getting rich. In the issue of November 17 Shomaker has an extended hot-air article on Experiments in Regrassing. He lauds Russian brome grass to the skies. He says this grass is most extensively planted in the Yakima valley, and that it is "the gold mine of western agriculture." In the issue of December 15 there is Shomaker's article on the Yakima valley sorghum crop. From reading it one would think there was no greater money maker in that section than sorghum crops, notwithstanding he makes the claim that celery, Russian brome grass and a multitude of other crops are the greatest money makers there. According to his figures one ton of sorghum yields 20 gallons of fine molasses, the seed averages 40 bushels an acre and sells for $3 per ton, and the cane sells for $2 per ton. The figures are neatly manipulated and it would require an expert to figure out the yield in actual cash value per acre. He also contributes a half column article exploiting the wonderful qualities of the Australian salt bush, a plant which he advocates as especially valuable to the farmers of the Yakima country. The fact is that repeated experiments with Australian salt bush in the alkali districts of the Northwest prove it to be unable to stand our winters, and it is a flat failure.

On January 12th we were told the greatest and most nutritive forage crop for the valley east of the mountains was cow peas. What are we to believe about all his previous statements? Are they all overshadowed by the fact that, as he claims, "a field of cow peas is often the poor man's bank?" But Joel Shomaker evidently does not expect his readers to remember anything he says over three days. In the very next issue of the Twice-a-week Post-Intelligencer he praises the new forage plant teosinte with all the vigor at his command. The farmer can get "60 tons of green feed per acre; it grows to the height of 10 and 12 feet, and has two crops annually. It will prove a money maker to dairymen and stock feeders. As ensilage it has few superiors."

This is really remarkable. All the old and tried standbys of the dairyman and stockman are in great danger of being replaced by this new, remarkable and untried plant — teosinte. What do the agricultural college professors know about it?

If the dairy farmer fails to make money out of teosinte, perhaps he had better plow up the field and put it into pecan trees. Joel Shomaker, who considers himself an authority on their cultivation, says they are a remarkably profitable crop and that the Yakima valley is peculiarly adapted to their production. The same may be said of the soja bean, which, according to Shomaker, is going to replace the old favorite of the dairyman — gluten or cottonseed meal. If, after experimenting with all these plants you do not make a success, try, try again. Shomaker says the raising of squabs for the city market is going to be the salvation of the Yakima valley farmer. According to his figures there is nothing that can beat squabs for profit. But he fails to say how the farmer is going to exist during all the years he is trying the various plants and vegetables recommended as the most profitable.

The persistency with which this forage crop writer is telling his readers about the "best and most profitable crop" is worthy of a better cause. Every thinking farmer knows that ginseng is practically nothing in the farm operations of the country, yet Shomaker insists that there is going to be a revolution in gardening in the Yakima valley and that ginseng will prove the salvation of the gardener; ginseng is going to make rich everyone who plants a plot of ground in this crop. It is remarkable with what sang froid this writer deals with the subjects he selects. He speaks as if everything he says is the truth, and nothing but the truth. Those horny handed tillers of the soil, who have spent their lives in close touch with nature and know the exact conditions necessary to the successful growing of a crop and what crops are best adapted to different sections and different soils, may prefer to disagree with Joel Shomaker, but they are not to be taken into account. Shomaker knows all about it! It is really remarkable how much he knows about farming in the Yakima valley; but perhaps the most remarkable thing about all this is that such a reputable paper as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer should permit itself to be worked in this way.