The Wheat Arrived Faster Than the Trains Could Carry It
A bumper Whitman County wheat crop threatened to overwhelm Palouse storage again, reviving memories of last year's losses and the Guy warehouse that buckled under its own grain.
The coming grain crop of Whitman County promises to be equal to that of last year, and the increased acreage will tax every warehouse in the Palouse region to hold the export grain until it can be moved to market. Last harvest there was considerable loss, owing to the railroads' inability to handle the wheat as fast as it was offered for export. The extra expense of handling it a second or even a third time before it reached the cars from the elevators—and, in a few instances, exposure to rain, not to speak of the inconvenient delays to farmers—should have taught a lesson. It did in some instances, but few stations possess elevator facilities for all the grain to be handled by the O. R. & N. and Northern Pacific in this county.
At Guy, the big O. R. & N. warehouse collapsed last year under the great weight of wheat piled in sacks. This season better warehouse and elevator facilities have been arranged for, and a grist mill will handle a great deal of the grain.
“The coming grain crop of Whitman County promises to be equal to that of last year, and the increased acreage will tax every warehouse in the Palouse region to hold the export grain until it can be moved to market.”
A century before “supply chain” became a household phrase, Palouse farmers faced the same problem: a record harvest and not enough rail cars or elevators to move it. The collapse at Guy is a reminder that boom economies are only as strong as the infrastructure beneath them.
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