ISO TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



MR. COOKE AND THE CODLING MOTH. 



There is no more interesting exhibition in the State Fair this year 

 than that which Mr. Cooke has furnished in the lower hall, under the 

 auspices of the State Agricultural Society. Mr. Cooke is neither an 

 agriculturist nor a scientific man, yet he has developed into a self- 

 made naturalist, and he has already been enabled to confer great and 

 permanent benefit upon the fruit-growers of California. His busi- 

 ness is to manufacture boxes of all kinds. In the course of his busi- 

 ness he made many boxes for fruit-growers, and so he came to know 

 that the ravages of some little insect were seriously injuring the 

 orchards. By degrees he became interested in finding out what sort 

 of an insect it was, and how it conducted its operations, and so he 

 was lea! into a series of experiments which eventually put him in 

 possession of the entire history of the codling moth. Having 

 'earned all about this foe of the orchards, Mr. Cooke was naturally 

 .ed on to attempt remedies for the evil, and having tried all kinds of 

 mixtures, he finally discoverd one which destroys the mischievous 

 insect effectually. All this labor and all this research grew almost 

 insensibly out of small beginnings, but now Mr. Cooke knows more 

 about the codling moth than any man in California ; and, more- 

 over, his interest has widened so as to take in the scale insect, the 

 phylloxera, and various other pests of the field, orchard, and vine- 

 yard ; the same patient investigation and intelligent reflection which 

 have enabled him to conquer the codling moth will, we trust, also 

 give him the victory over his new adversaries. It is by such unself- 

 ish and persistent inquiry and experiment that the most important 

 discoveries are often made, and such self-taught naturalists as Mr. 

 Cooke have frequently conferred more benefits upon their generation 

 than more fully equipped scientists. The State Agricultural Society 

 cannot do better than to encourage and reward such services as Mr. 

 Cooke has rendered and is rendering the State. It is thus that the 

 society can effect the highest good of which such associations are 

 capable. We hope, too, that our practical agriculturists will not 

 leave Sacramento until they have fully examined the very interest- 

 ing exhibit referred to, if only that they may see how much can be 

 done, in every line of life, by patient observation and the resolute 

 searching out of the actual causes of whatever evils are in operation. 



THE DEBRIS EXHIBIT AT THE FAIR. 



One of the most interesting exhibits at the Pavilion this year is to 

 be found in the lower hall. It consists of specimens of the deposits 

 which have been cast upon the Bear River lands from the mines 

 above, and it constitutes the most striking and convincing proof of 

 the blighting effects of this debris that could be imagined. On one 

 side is a solid mass of the deposit or " slickens," as it was dug up. 

 It is a closely compacted cake of deposit, so fine that when the moist- 

 ure has evaporated it forms an almost rock-like layer, and in no 

 long period does actually harden into a kind of sandstone. It is so 

 close of texture that nothing will grow in it, even the hardy willow 

 perishing in a short time. Next to this is a fine, sharp, white sand, 

 which it has been claimed rather improves than injures the soil 



