Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1893-10-13
THE DAMAGED CROPS.
What the People Want at Present is
Time.
A Plea for the Palouse Farmer and the
People at Large.

weather and they will have plenty OF
money. A trip through the country
shows the grain to be slightly damaged,
but not to such an extent as was eXpec-
ted after the number OF hard rains and
damp days we have experienced for the
past three weeks. Not over twenty-five
per cent. of the standing grain is dam
aged to any great >tent, and the greater
part of that in the stacks that las not
been threshed can be saved. Although
the stacks were wet pretty badly, the
heavy wind of Thursday, and the cold
nights have greatly dried them out and
saved a great deal that otherwise would
have been spoiled. AS soon as the ground
gets hard enough so that farmers can
get into the fields with their machinery,
the grain will be dry enough to cut and
thrcsh, and then, evs n with wheat at
only 40 cents per bushel, they will have
money to pay their debts, as the wheat
crop this year in Whitman county is
enormous, as usual.
Now, what the ranchers want is TINE,
aud time they must have. Ii they can
have from forty to sixty days more on
their debts they can sell their wheat and
pay off their bills to the stores; and the
farmers in past years have proved to the
merchants that they do their best, and
always pay their home merchants first,
and if there is anyone to wait it must be
the foreign capitalist and outsider who
has made them realty loans. The rec
ords show that there are very few real
estate mortgages falling due on ranch
property this fall, SO that the farmers
have not the big mortgages to meet, and
the bills to the merchant have been held
down to the minimum this year, conse-
quently the low price Of wheat will not
give them any more to pay in proportion
this fall than they have had other years
when they have received big price Tor
their grain.
Now that the weather has cleared the
ground will soon dry and the ranchers
will have learned lesson by this wet
spell, and will rush harvest to finish,
and then sell their grain and pay their
debts to the merchants. For the merch-
ants and others who hold notes and ac-
counts against the farmer to try and
push them now would be nothing less
than suicide to the whole country, and
bring down misery, want and starvation
ON the he Dis OF all. Take calm, disin-
terested look at the situation and you
will see what "pushieg" matters would
do at the present time. The amount OF
grain already harvested and stored IS but
about seven per cent. Of the whole crop,
and number OF the farmers have not
touched theirs
This small amount would not begin to
pay the outstanding Indebtedness OF the
ranchcrs OF the county at the present
market price of the grain, and II they
can have a reasonable length OF time to
harvest the rest of their crop they Will
pay all off. Now as friends OF the farmer,
and looking at the welfare OF the busl-
ness man as well, we wish to impress on
the minds of the merchants the value OF
that little word "time." We know that
the creditors of the merchant wish their
money, and are apt to push him for what
he owes, but he cannot get his money
until the farmer gets his; and the farmer
cannot get his money until the crop he
has toiled all the long summer through
to produce is in the hands Of the buyer;
then, and not until then, can he pay his
debts, and when he pays his the whole
country liyens up, and everyone is en-
abled to pay their debts,
The creditors OF the merchants must
look at this country rs it is, an agricul-
tural country, with no other means OF
subsistence; on the farmer alone we de-
pend, and to him, as usual in stringent
times we look. The farmer alone can
save US all from bankruptcy, and if we
give him time he will do it. Let the
merchants tell their creditors just how
things are in this famous .PaIouse coun-
try, and we are sure they will wait on
them as the merchants will have to wait
on the farmer.
The merchants must wait If they can.
Ii they are forced to push the farmer
what will be the result? OF the possibly
$2OO, 900 that the merchants have out
standing in this county among the farm
ers, not five per cent, OF it could be col
lected to day, where in sixty days from
today, we think we are safe in saying,
nearly every dollar could be collected,
as the verage Palouse farmer is noted
for the prompt payment OF his debts
when the price OF his crop is so that he