The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1921-09-01
SAY FARM PROSPECTS
% FOR STATE ARE GOOD
Department of Agriculture at Olym-
pia Issues Promising Report of
I'll Conditions in Washington

II That a prosperous fall is in store
4 Tor the farmers of Washington, is
u the opinion of the state department
/ ~ agriculture, which this week is
d aued the following report of condi-
4 lions throughout Washington:
AT the commencement of the year
there was a decidedly pessimistic
y feeling among the farmers Of this
s3state. They saw the bottom drop
Ding out of prices of farm products
md could see no such recession of
prices of what they had to buy.
There was the general belief that
their operations for this year were
to be conducted at an actual loss,
and few anticipated that they would
lido more than break even on the cost
fsOf making their crops. Yet. things
have turned out far better than was
1 expected.
tn 1.-The wheat harvest has advanced
s tar enough to show that all of the
estimates, forecasting as
they did a crop of far above normal.
were in fact conservative. Nowhere
where harvesting has gone on has
!. the crop not proved considerably
Greater than anticipated.
q 1.-The estimate made by the federal
/ bureau on August 1st, with harvest
i well under way, was that the entire
wheat crop of the state this year
4 would be 81 ola, 900 bushels, which
i Is 13 3,000, 600 bushels more than the
crop of last year and S,82S,000 bush
els more than the ten-year average.
! That crop was harvested at the low
est labor cost of any season since the
j outbreak of the great war in Europe,
and there are very few of the wheat
growers of this state who will not
make a substantial profit on their
crop, even at the relatively low farm
price of about 81 cents a bushel,
which is the figure at which the ear
liest of the winter wheat has reached
the market. AT this figure nearly
50,000.000 will be distributed
among wheat farmers. and none of
them will go hungry or see his mort
gage foreclosed this year. at all
events. The average winter wheat
crop per acre in this state is slightly
more than double the average for
the United States.
49, Ii''ile. < o-Hc1>s- uf orchard fruit, ,es-
pecially apples, have certainty of a
very prospery year. The apple crop
of the whole country is less than half
that of last year, while the apple crop
of this state promises to break all
records. The federal bureau of mar
kets and crop estimates places the ap-
pie crop of Washington at 80 percent
of the entire commercial crop for the
country. The apple grower is GER
tain to have year which will com
pare favorably with any one Of the
years of war prices and artificial
prosperity.
'It is true that the dairy farmers
are dissatisfied with the returns and
think that their industry has ceased
to be remunerative. The condition
is not local; it is the same all over
the country. The condenseries have
lost the bulk of their foreign trade,
they are overstocked with their pro-
ducts and they no longer afford
market for the surplus milk products
of the country. The inevitable re-
suit is a lower price for all dairy pro-
duets, with this stabiliZing factor
ceasing to count as it formerly did.
But locally the dairy farmers have
this in their favor-the prices of
feeds have dropped as rapidly as
other farm prices. Hay can be had
for half the war price, and other
feeds have fallen in almost the same
proportion. 1t is doubtful whether
it costs any more to feed dairy stock
now than it did before the war. 1t
is true labor is still high, but not as
high as it was, by any means. The
dairy farmer of Western Washington
has had the additional advantage of
an extraordinary good growth of
pasture.
"These advantages to the dairy
farmer, it is true, have been offset
to the hay grower of Eastern Wash
ington, who has to content himself
this year with a price not half that
which his crop has previously COM
manded. Western Washington, the
center of the dairying industry, has
had a splendid hay crop, coming
much closer than ordinary to filing
the needs of the local dairymen, and
thus limiting the demand for the
Eastern Washington product. The
abundant pasture this year has also
worked in the same direction.
AT the commencement of the
berry picking season the outlook was
gloomy indeed. The eanneries We're