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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1897 | 4 |
| 1898 | 13 |
| 1899 | 1 |
18 stories matching box
- The Box of Cherries That Made the Railroad Pay Up
Walla Walla shippers turned a single unstamped crate into a daily $50-fine threat—until Northern Pacific headquarters blinked.
- The Mealy Bug Standoff at the Seattle Docks
A county inspector orders 800 boxes of Japanese oranges stripped and fumigated. A horticultural commissioner softens the ruling—and the Japanese consul watches closely.
- The Rural Route Comes to Stay
Postal inspectors ride the 30-mile Yakima circuit and find 200 mailboxes where there were none — and a carrier pay raise to $400 a year.
- Washington Apples Fight Back Against a New York Snub
A Seattle commission man rebuts a trade journal's claim that Northwest fruit can't match California's, citing 10,000 boxes of fancy apples already shipped east.
- The Wholesaler Tells the Growers the Truth: 'We Don't Love You'
Sixteen years in the Seattle commission trade and no patience left, R. Merchant tells a room of fruit growers that no middleman has ever cared about them — and that neat, uniform packing, not grievance, is the only thing that ever got a farmer paid.
- When Every Eastern Market Was Swamped: The 1897 Fruit Glut That Broke Northwest Growers
A Northwest agricultural writer tallies the wreckage of a boom season — glutted markets, freight and icing bills nobody could pay, and a blunt prescription for growers: dry your prunes and hold for a price.
- The Orchardist Who Turned Down $1,000 Cash and Bet on His Apples
A Yakima Valley rancher's careful spraying and pruning turned a pest-ridden orchard into a crop he expects to net $1,500 — so when a buyer waved a thousand dollars at him, he said no.
- The Bug Inspector Who Called Himself a Crank — and Warned That Japanese Oranges Could Wreck Washington's Orchards
A King County insect inspector accuses the state horticultural commissioner of botching a fumigation order, then warns that the scale insects riding in on imported Japanese oranges could become "a curse to one of Washington's greatest industries."
- Counterfeit Yakima Potatoes on the Sound
A Tacoma paint dealer tells the valley's paper that Puget Sound merchants were passing off second-grade Western Washington spuds as Yakima's prized crop — and that in a full year he got the genuine article only three times.
- Spokane’s Fifteen-Cent Fair Was a Dollar Show for the Inland Empire
In October 1897, Spokane turned a downtown block into a clean, no-gambling agricultural exposition—and invited the whole Inland Empire to admire its fruit, grain, and future.
- The Fruit Boom on Orcas Island
A local resident reports on the rapid agricultural expansion of the San Juan Islands, predicting a tenfold increase in fruit production.
- Twenty Days to Spray: Yakima's Orchard Inspectors Take On the San Jose Scale
Yakima County's fruit inspectors are the busiest in Washington, ordering every infested orchard sprayed on twenty days' notice — while eastern growers scoff that the scale panic is just a racket for would-be inspectors.
- The Berry Math That Made Puyallup
A fruit-growers' manager laid out the 1898 economics of Western Washington berries: $1 a crate, 75-cent hired labor, and a cannery on the horizon.
- Wenatchee Bets the Valley on Alfalfa — And Dreams of Dairy Herds
A touring correspondent finds the apple country sowing alfalfa by the acre, convinced the real money is in feed, stock and cream rather than in boxed fruit shipped east.
- The 1898 Sales Pitch That Called the San Juan Islands a 'Klondike at Home'
A judge's promotional essay promised apples, prunes, sheep, fish, limestone and health in Washington's island county—and complained that the outside world had not yet noticed.
- The Glasshouse Farm That Fed Seattle's Hotels
In 1898, an editor toured a Lake Washington model farm where seven greenhouses and a prize Jersey herd supplied the city's finest tables.
- The Orchardist Who Told the State Its Moth Spraying Was Useless
In 1898, a North Yakima grower argued that the state's codlin-moth spray schedule did not fit the Yakima Valley's climate—and warned that apple and pear growing might be doomed without better field science.
- The Orchardist's Revolt: Wawawai Grower Accuses Yakima Commission Firm of Withholding $1,100
J.W. Offield says Thompson Kain refused to pay for his peach and pear crop; the firm counters that he misrepresented varieties and freight rates.