The Nespelem tribune. [volume] (Nespelem, Wash.) 1934-1936, 1935-10-30
Lettuce Business
Attracts Ra1lchers
Martin Wick And Associate Sue
ceeding In New Enterprise
In County
(From THE PACKER)

l
tin Wick, cattle man, Joe Snyder,
dry farmer, broke up Is acres of
sagebrush on the Okanogan river
near Brewster last summer, and an
nounced their intention of growing
a crop of head-lettuce, their only
precedent was the experience gained
by Mr.. Snyder in raising a quarter
of an acre of lettuce the previous
year. No one else had ever grown
lettuce commercially in that part Of
the country. But he found that his
| quarter-acre made excellent pasture
for his milch-cows, even after SELL
ing $96 worth of lettuce to the near
by village grocery stores.
| Aiding and abetting Mr.. Snyder's
pioneering spirit was the agricul-
tural agent of the Great Northern
Railway Between them, they en-
listed the enthusiasm of neighbor
Wick. But let Martin Wick tell his
story:
I'VE planned on two or three
acres at first, just for fun, and to
be doing something different. But
then we figured that even two or
| three acres would take all our time
| for two or three months, so we de-
cided to spend our time on real
patch of lettuce while we were at it
-and let the COWS rustic their own
living on the range. I'm a cattle
man never knew anything but COWS
and horses and just started this
lettuce thing for fun. We thought
we might get $50 an acre from the
lettuce. So we all pitched in, wives,
kids and old folks. Everything was
just guesswork. Installed an cleo
trio pump to irrigate from the Ok
anogan; and 500 power bill and cost
of seed is about all the expense we
were out. We plowed, levelled,
planted, irrigated, cultivated and
Trimmed by guesswork. Planted
around August 1. The Warmest
September in history hurt our earl
lest planting some.
IT didn't think I'd have to har-
vest the stuff somebody told us
that someone would probably buy
the field from us. First planting
got ready to cut last week, and no.
body knew what to do with it. My
son brought an empty lettuce crate
home from the Brewster grocery
store last week.-Mrs. crate ever
saw. We didn't know whether our
lettuce was good, bad or what.
Never saw any other lettuce to
compare it with. Then Rusty-he
lives next ranch to me and owns a
truck-hauled few loads to We
natchee, where it sold like Wild
fire. Then we got some crates and
sent a couple of loads to Seattle.
We don't know how to pack it or
ship it. Just put three or four
dozen heads in each crate, 100 crates
to a truckload, and sold them in
Seattle for $1.75 per crate. They
say other lettuce is only selling at
SOC and GOO, so I guess ours is pretty
good. We're farming it as one piece,
although my patch is bigger'n Joe's.
"Mr. Davenport, the G.. N. Ry.
man, came last week, and has taken
the harvesting and marketing off
our hands. He brought a. lettuce
man from Seattle, to show us how
to cut it and pack it. We've only
cut two or three acres, and have
most of our 81, 900 that we wanted
to sell the crop for. Looks like we
may have to load a few cars, al
though folks say the outside mar
kets are awfu1ly low; so we may just
pasture whatever we can't sell by
truck. Our late crop looks lots bet
ter than what we've harvested. Mr..
Feloh of Mojonnier & Sons, the big
vegetable shippers from Walla Walla
told us the late crop should grade
u. S. No. l, whatever that is"
Thus was conceived a new in
dustry in North Central Washing
ton. Limitless acres of fertile soil
are apparently available and suit
able to production of fall lettuce.
Plans are already afoot for expan-
sion of this crop, under experienced
supervision of Mr.. Davenport, and
the two pioneers.