A New Orchard Plague
As fruit inspectors prepare for their annual conference in Pullman, officials sound the alarm over a disease imported from the Orient on steamships.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The annual meeting of the county fruit inspectors of the state will be held in Pullman, January 11, 12, and 13. The arrangements for the meeting have been made by A. Yon Holderbeke, state horticulturist. Mr. Yon Holderbeke is making elaborate preparations for the coming institute. One of the interesting subjects treated will be the new disease known as Japanese 'Minor,' a disease that has been imported to Washington from Japan. It is said to have a big hold on the fruit industry of the Orient. So far but one case has been discovered in this state. Two months ago an orchard in Cowlitz county was discovered to be infected with the disease. For a time there was doubt as to the character of the disorder, until indubitable evidence was given showing that the disease had probably been imported on some of the Oriental steamships that plow their way up the Columbia river. Stringent methods will at once be taken to stamp the disease out of this country.
“Stringent methods will at once be taken to stamp the disease out of this country.”
Concerns about invasive agricultural species and foreign imports remain a vital part of Pacific Northwest policy today. The 1903 framing of the disease as an 'Oriental' import mirrors the way the era frequently racialized biological and economic threats to the Washington fruit industry.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.