Wormy Apples and Four Dollars a Day

State Horticultural Commissioner Von Holderbeke has preferred charges with the Yakima Horticultural Union against Fruit Inspector Beck, and asks that the association dismiss him from office, on the ground that he has not been attending to duty lately. He says that Mr. Beck has been frittering away his time in the hop yards, and letting infected fruit be shipped out of the county. The county association hasn't seen fit to remove him and probably won't, replying that the commissioner himself should do the bouncing if any is to be done. The affair has been carried into the columns of the dailies, where it is being fought to a finish.

It is just such cases as this that cause the fruit growers and people of the state generally to realize the almost utter worthlessness of the present horticultural law.

A good deal has been said from time to time by The Ranch regarding the horticultural law. Some people think it is a fine thing, the guardian and protector of the fruit interests of our state. However sincere the man who fathered the law may have been in this respect, the fact is it is a signal failure in every particular save one — that of providing fat berths for the faithful. In the county of King there is a fruit inspector and deputy, each drawing four dollars per day and expenses, and the services of a stenographer on the side. Their duties are to keep the county free of injurious pests, protecting the orchards from their ravages, and insure clean, perfect fruit for the consumer. On both counts they have failed. On every fruit stand in the city of Seattle infected fruit is being sold. The customer finds wormy apples the rule and not the exception. The Ranch would be very thankful to anyone who will come forward and point out what good the inspectors are doing in King county.