Excerpt from Orchard Enemies in the Pacific Northwest
Within the past ten years the fruit-growing industry in the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho has developed very rapidly. With the possible exception of prunes, the greater part of the product is shipped as fresh fruit to Eastern markets, where it has already won a high reputation for quality.
Along with this rapid development of the industry there has been a much more rapid increase in the damage caused by insects and diseases. Ten years ago there was little or no need to fight orchard pests, as the injury caused by them was scarcely appreciable. At the present time, at least in the older sections, the fruit grower is compelled to combat insects or fungi or both, in order to grow marketable crops.
This marked change coming in so short a time, and in many cases involving serious loss, has naturally had a discouraging effect. In a few instances this discouragement has even led to the digging up of orchards. The increase in the amount of damage by orchard enemies has been the more depressing because the idea had gained considerable credence that the previous immunity from such loss was due to some special peculiarity of the soil or climate or both. Unfortunately this idea still prevails in sections where, for some reason or other, pests have not yet become a serious factor. At one time, when western Oregon apples were justly famous, the growers said: "We will never have wormy apples here because the climate is so moist." In the warm interior valleys orchardists now claim that fungous diseases will never be a menace because the climate is too hot and dry; and upon the interior uplands their competitors say that no insect or fungous enemy need ever be feared because of the winds and the cool nights. In all this there is a somewhat labored effort to consider as proven what is at best a hope. The experience of nearly every new region has been much the same. No place has yet been discovered where orchards will thrive where pests will not also thrive. The general truth of the statement is not affected by the well-known fact that the amount of damage caused by a particular insect or fungus varies greatly in different regions and in the same region from year to year.
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