The 'Plant Scurvy' Plague
A state official claims a revolutionary cure for orchard blights, blaming soil chemistry rather than disease.
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.
State Horticultural Commissioner A. Van Holderbeke is out with a special bulletin to fruit culturists of the state, containing what he claims is a sure treatment for the hitherto incurable blackspot in apple trees, gumosis in pitted fruit trees, and pear blight in pear trees. According to the commissioner, in a majority of cases a simple application of lime about the roots of a tree is all that is required to start them afresh into renewed healthy life. The blackspot, which has puzzled the horticulturists of two worlds, is nothing but a species of plant scurvy—the result of a ration out of balance. Usually, with a view to forcing rapid growth, the roots are plied with manure. The plant food being overbalanced by the presence of such quantities of nitrogen, the proportions are wrong and a change takes place in the nature of the sap. Lime applied to the ground will liberate potash, correct the proportions, and the tree at once recovers.
“The blackspot, which has puzzled the horticulturists of two worlds, is nothing but a species of plant scurvy.”
Washington’s agricultural economy has always depended on the expertise of its state agencies. While modern soil science has advanced, the reliance on state-issued bulletins to solve widespread crop failure is a tradition that continues to sustain the state's orchards today.
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