FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



officially by the International Institute o£ Agriculture at Rome. 



During that same summer of 1923 I attended two other 

 international gatherings. The first was held in Madrid in May, 

 under the auspices of the International Institute of Rome, and 

 it was held solely for the purpose of considering the measures 

 to be taken against the olive fly, a very injurious insect that 

 often causes great loss to the great olive industry that centers 

 in the countries about the Mediterranean Sea. The United 

 States had been asked to send delegates, but had refused on 

 the grounds that the olive industry in the United States was 

 comparatively small, existing only in Southern California, and 

 that the olive fly was unknown in our country. 



I am reminded here of an interesting story bearing on these 

 facts. A good many years ago Secretary of Agriculture James 

 Wilson sent for me and told me that he had dined at the 

 White House the night before, and that the lady on his right, 

 the Principessa Brancaccio, had told him that she had asked 

 to be seated next to him, for the reason that her husband's olive 

 groves in South Italy were badly infested by the olive fly, and 

 that she, knowing how practical the Americans are in such 

 matters, had come to America largely to consult him about it. 

 He told her that he was not an entomologist, but that he would 

 send some one to her to talk about it the next afternoon. He 

 placed his carriage at my disposal, gave me a card of intro- 

 duction, and I went out to the beautiful house at the corner 

 of Twentieth and Q Streets which the Prince and Princess had 

 leased for the winter. The Princess was both beautiful and 

 intelligent. When I asked the exact location of her husband's 

 olive groves, she stated that they were in Portici, just outside 

 of Naples. I then told her that the fly did not exist in the 

 United States, and that the expert who knew most about it 

 and the way to control it was Professor Antonio Berlese, of 



[208] 



