The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1916-06-15
SEES EVIDENCES
OF FARM THRIFT
DeSellem Says Results of Better
Methods Are Showing on
Farms of This Valley

District Horticultural Inspector F.
E. DeSellem, of Yakima county, is
here this week in company with In
spector Luke Powell for the purpose
of studying methods to combat the
strawberry root weevil. Mr.. DIESEL
lem says the commissioners of Ben
ton county are deserving of consi6-
cradle credit for having set aside
funds for conducting weevil-control
experiments. AS the results of the
experiments he predicts that thous-
ands of dollars will be saved to the
strawberry growers of the Northwest
and an industry, the destruction OF
which threatened, will be saved. The
weevil is making its appearance in
the patches around North Yakima this
year for the first time and the inspec-
tor wishes to begin now to stop their
spread. -
As former resident of this valley
and one of the men who was instru-
mental in getting an agriculturalist
here, Mr.. DeSellem is finding much
to interest him as he visits the Or
chards and farms up and down the
valley. He says he finds evidences
on every hand of better farming
methods, which he attributes largely
to the work of County Agricultural
list Lee M. Lampson and Horticultur-
alist Powell. Il. s.-..sss
"Only casual look at the orchards
is enough to convince me that the
farmers are building up their soil"
said Mr.. DeSellem., "The foliage is a
deep, rich green and forms rather a
violent contrast to some of the sickly
looking trees that were in evidence
five or six years ago. It is easy to
see that with an occasional excep-
ton the Kennewick farmers are real
ly farming.
zone thing for which this commun-
ity is to be congratulated is the fine
spirit which the orchardists and farm
ers have displayed. They seem to be
working in absolute harmony with
the men whom the state and county
are paying to assist them to work
out the many problems of ranch life.
Five years ago there was not an ag-
ricultural and horticultural section
in the country that needed educating
more than this one. Today I don't
believe there is better farm edu-
Gated community in the Northwest,
Five years ago the country was new.
Farming on new soil and under new
conditions was all more or less guess
work. Nobody seemed to know just
what the country was best adapted
for or just what methods to follow to
get the best results. You are grad
ually working out these problems and
in so doing you have outdistanced
many of the older sections of the
state"
When asked as to the blight con-
ditions at North Yakima, Mr.. De-
Sellem said that altho they were not
as bad as two years ago they are
worse now than last year and the
fight to save the orchards is by no
means won. Inspectors in Yakima
county, he says, have been seriously
handicapped by the failure Of or
chardists to cooperate and the de-
cidedly hostile attitude shown by some
of them. Not only, have the inspec-
tors had to fight blight in the or
chards but have had to fight orchard
owners in the courts and face bull
dogs and loaded shotguns on the
farms.
Experiments have been one of our
greatest handicaps," said Mr.. DIESEL
lem. "Fire blight has been known
to have existed for 148 years. Some
of the ablest experts have spent years
Of unsuccessful work and the United
States government has spent thous-
ands of dollars in trying to find some
cure for blight, but no means Of con-
troll other than cutting out the infect
ed parts has ever been found. Yet
many of the Yakima orchardists per-
sist in the ruinous policy of defying
the inspectors while they try some new
experiment. It certainly is an up
hill game and the community that
cuts blight while others are expert
menting is the only community that
has chance to win out"