Apple Maggot
Quarantine
Round

Mark Cohen suggested in the recent Seattle Folklife thread that Linda Allen might lead the Northwest Historical Songs workshop in singing his "Apple Maggot Quarantine Round", but he also noted that in her Washington Songs and Lore she had got the tune wrong. Herewith Linda's commentary from that book (p. 64), and the text of the round aka the text of the roadside signs.

Around 1980 the apple maggot arrived in Washington, posing a serious economic threat to fruit growers around the state. In 1985 regulations aimed at preventing the spread of apple maggots by artificial means were adopted, and signs were posted around the state by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Transportation. Seattle songwriter Mark Cohen made the words from the sign into a round, the "Apple Maggot Quarantine Round," which is, fortunately spreading more rapidly than the maggot.

Apple maggot
quarantine area
Do not transport
homegrown fruit.

© 1986 Mark Cohen

I have posted the text with a MIDI of what I think the tune is probably supposed to be (I lowered Linda's last two notes a full step) on my GeoCities pages, at http://www.geocities.com/lilandr/seatlo/muziko/amqr.html for your edification and enjoyment and in the hope that Mark (who is now a Hawaiian songwriter, at least geographically) will listen and tell me if I correctly emended Linda's melody line.

Liland