The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-08-14
The Blight Question

THE blight question being one of
the utmost importance to us, 1 was
particularly interested in studying IL.
find that it was getting a very severe
hold in the valley, when the county
decided to get the very best man it
could to take charge of the cam
paign for determination and entered
into contract with p. J. O'Gara, VIII }
at the time was the head of plant dis
eases in the U. S. Department of Ag-
riculture. They pay him about $4,000
a year. When / was there. a demon
stration of how they handle it was
just taking place. There was an or
chard short distance from town,
which had beautiful pear trees on
it, about 16 years old. The owner was
one of the old timers who did not be-
lieve in them new tangled notions of
hurting a mans trees, because some
of the branches and twigs turned a
little black. 1t was all nonsense that
1t would kill trees; If they had to die,
they would die anyway and ne. for
one, did not believe it amounted to
anything, but was gotten up to scare
folks into hiring expensive college pro
fessors, etc.
Inspectors Explain Treatment
THE district inspectors had gone
through his orchard and found trees
in bad condition the previous year;
had shown them to him. and notified
him he must cut it all out, and ex-
planned to him that it had to be done
very carefully and was no easy job,
and especially to be sure and cut way
ha1a I, c1, Tx, tn
out it was absolutely necessary to dis
infect his tools after each cut with a
solution of chloride of mercury. as
otherwise it was possible to spread the
disease all through his orchard, should
he prune with the same tool without
disinfecting, in making cuts in clean
wood. They explained to him that If
taken in time, trees can nearly always
be saved, even if half the bark is cut
off, by bridge grating. He did do a
little pruning. but not carefully or
thoroughly or low enough, so that this
year his orchard was in bad shape.
Must Submit to Law
Before l got there the inspectors
went in one day. during the owners
absence and found some of the trees
less, and cut them right down and
burned most of it up. I saw the
trunks at Prof. O'Gara's office. The
owner when he returned was furious;
and made all kinds of threats of what
he would do, and said he would shoot
the next man who came interfering
with his trees. He was promptly sent
for, and O'Gara notified him that not
alone would those trees be inspected,
bat unless he Immediately complied
With the orders to cut out all the
blight, it would De done at the own
ser's expense and Furthermore the
owner would be put in Jail at once,
and given a, prison sentence. They
realize fully there or practically all of
them, that the, only salvation of the
~alley, is to stamp it out, and it can
only be done by all working together,
End backing up the authorities who
have 1t in hand to the fullest extent,
an not let few moss backs imperil
az the trees by negligence as one
hGdlv infected tree can infect all the
trees around for a distance of several
miles very easily. l drove through
the orchard, and it had all been cut
out, and they told me the owner was
extremely meek thereafter.
"By going after blight in this
thorough systematic manner and max
ing everyone cut out every scrap and
trace of it, they are gradually Grad
icating 1t, but it is only by such
stringent methods that it can be han
died.
Appearance OF Apple Trees
"The apple trees. with the excep-
ton of Newtowns, did not look nearly
as healthy as ours, especially the
Jonathans.
"Their methods of handling trees
are no better than ours. They are
not more up to date than we are, in
the, pruning tools. or picking, OF
packing facilities, in fact I failed to
find a single first-class packing house
in my entire trip, but in spite of cyude
to pick anything smaller than this
ring, which ~ inches inside dame
ter. If pear fell to the ground dur