The War on Infested Nursery Stock
Whitman County fruit growers organize to purge the region of diseased trees shipped in by eastern nurseries.
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 Whitman County Horticultural Society, though less than a year old, has proven to be a valuable factor in the regional economy. Under the law, the society secured the appointment of a fruit inspector just in time to stop large invoices of infested nursery stock shipped from eastern nurseries. Inspector Harrison spent two weeks examining shipments, finding worthless and dangerous trees at nearly every railroad station in the county. The society’s warnings allowed counties north of Spokane to condemn entire carloads of diseased stock, preventing a widespread agricultural blight. Growers are now being urged to attend the annual meeting at Garfield to continue the effort and strengthen the association for Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.
“Solicitors for the sale of this stuff avoided counties having horticultural societies and fruit inspectors.”
This civic mobilization mirrors modern concerns regarding invasive species and biosecurity in Washington’s agricultural corridors. The 1900 fight over 'infested' stock established the regulatory framework that still protects the Palouse’s apple and grain economies.
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