Vashon Farmers Petition for County Spraying Equipment
Island growers urge the County Commissioners to purchase a communal power-sprayer to combat orchard blight.
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.
To the honorable board of King County Commissioners, Seattle, Wash.: We, the undersigned, fruit growers, taxpayers and residents of Vashon Island, do hereby petition your honorable body to purchase a power spraying outfit; this spraying outfit to be put in charge of the County Horticultural Inspector, who could be empowered to spray a great many orchards on Vashon Island at cost. Heretofore it has been practically impossible to get our orchards sprayed according to state horticultural laws, and we believe that thorough work could be done which would be of great benefit to the fruit growers, and at the same time be of no further expense to the county after the machine was once purchased. A meeting was held in Vashon Tuesday of this week, at which were present Miss Edna Walker, county home demonstration agent, Mr. A. Nystrom, county horticulturist, and a number of Island people. A temporary organization was formed and committees appointed on fruit, soil, drainage and bees.
“A spraying outfit for the Islands is a pressing need and it is hoped the request of the petitioners will be granted.”
The struggle for shared agricultural resources on Vashon remains a relevant theme, as modern farmers and small-scale growers navigate the balance between private land management and the need for collective, county-supported infrastructure.
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