The Fireblight menace : knowledge communities and their response to crop disease in the Anglo-world, 1880-1939

This thesis utilises the orchard disease ‘Fireblight’ as a means to explore the various communities involved in the creation and communication of horticultural knowledge in the Anglo-world (particularly the USA, Canada, and New Zealand) between 18801939. In the nineteenth century, Fireblight ravaged orchards in the United States and Canada, swiftly becoming endemic. In 1919, it spread to New Zealand, the first time it was recorded outside North America. Studying Fireblight enables us to shift the focus of histories of imperial horticulture and agricultural science from Britain’s tropical colonies to the dominions, and into a wider ‘Anglo-world' in which the British state was far less involved in directing scientific research. By investigating how the various communities of scientists, fruitgrowers, politicians, and civil servants, in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand, developed their understandings of how to deal with this culturally and biologically distinctive crop disease, this thesis explores both how each community developed a consensus, and also how knowledge moved between these communities. Each of these heterogenous groups had to navigate the interplay of practical and theoretical scientific knowledge concerning Fireblight in their efforts to claim expertise. The fruitgrowing communities and scientific institutions of the United States and Canada grew up with Fireblight, and expertise and experience was shared between both communities. In contrast, when the disease reached New Zealand, the relative infancy of the fruitgrowing sector meant civil servants and government scientists could claim greater expertise than fruitgrowers. Thus, the contrast between North America and New Zealand illustrates not only that scientists, fruitgrowers, and civil servants were all involved in shaping knowledge creation and communication practices, albeit with different priorities, but that the relationships between those communities depended on place and time.