8 BULLETIN 1388, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The peak in the orchard -fruit acreage came in 1916. (See fig. 4.) 
Since then the acreage has decreased slightly, largely because of weed- 
ing out less profitable kinds and varieties of fruit. The establish- 
ment of local canneries and fair pear prices and yields, in recent 
years, have resulted in an increase in the pear acreage since 1916. 
Alfalfa, potatoes, and wheat have been the principal enterprises 
from which most of the farmers, other than fruit growers, in this 
area have received their incomes. The first two of these crops are 
so well adapted to the soil and climatic conditions in the valley that 
their production often becomes specialized and quickly responds to 
changes in the price relationship of hay, forage, and vegetable crops. 
Sugar beets promised to play an important part in the farm or- 
ganization when first introduced into the valley in 1917. Three beet- 
sugar factories were erected in anticipation of a large beet acreage. 
In the first year 1,976 acres of sugar beets were grown on the Sunny- 
side division, with an average yield of 10 tons. The following year 
saw the largest beet acreage in the history of the valley, when 4,074 
acres were planted on the same division. But with a low yield, aver- 
aging only 5 tons per acre, sugar beets were relatively unprofitable. 
Since then the acreage has gradually declined, and in 1925 sugar- 
beet growing was abandoned until a time when the curly top disease 
is more under control and sugar-beet production is made more prof- 
itable to the growers. 
From 1914 to 1917 cattle and ho^s were comparatively important 
on the Sunnyside division farms. More livestock also meant more 
corn, as nearly all of the corn produced is fed on the farm. These 
facts will be noted from a study of Tables 3 and 4. The great de- 
mand for alfalfa hay from western Washington dairymen from 1916 
to 1920 made the production of this crop unusually profitable. The 
alfalfa acreage per farm was increased, and many farmers reduced 
considerably their number of cattle and hogs. Reduction of the al- 
falfa acreage, beginning with 1921, was partly due to the drop in the 
price of hay. Another factor that had an important part in this 
reduction was the comparatively low potato production in 1919, not 
only in Yakima County, but throughout the United States, together 
with the highest potato prices in the history of the country. As 
potatoes usually follow alfalfa in the crop rotation, and as the price 
of alfalfa hay was relatively low, most of the increased potato acre- 
age came out of alfalfa, as will be seen in Figure 4. 
With the increased acreage and production of potatoes prices 
dropped; but even at lower prices in 1921, Yakima farmers had un- 
usually high yields, which maintained high profits per acre, and the 
already overexpanded potato acreage was still further increased in 
1922. The inevitable happened ; potatoes were a drug on the market, 
and the high price of labor and materials almost ruined many farmers 
who specialized too heavily in this crop. Naturally the potato acre- 
age was sharply reduced the following year. (See fig. 5.) 
