The War on the Hop Aphis
As hop growers in Puyallup and Kent prepare for the season, a new state law empowers the horticulturist to force farmers to spray for pests.
The hop vines at Kent on the 17th had attained a growth of twelve feet. The Puyallup Hop Company at this date had trained once and were training the second time, and no lice had been found. The last legislature passed a law allowing the state horticulturist to go into any man's hop yard who was not spraying and would not spray, provided the yard was infested with lice, and spray at the owner's cost, which was to be collected the same as ordinary taxes. This will protect particularly the man who owns a yard adjoining another man's yard who will not spray. George D. Shannon, who owns a farm on the Nisqually and cultivates several acres of hops, last week bought a horse power sprayer and sent it to his tenant, although at first declaring that he would not spray.
“This will protect particularly the man who owns a yard adjoining another man's yard who will not spray.”
Agricultural regulation in Washington state began with these intense, localized fights against pests like the hop louse. The move to make farmers pay for state-mandated spraying on their property was an early, controversial expansion of state power in the interest of collective agricultural health.
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