No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 141 



This work could not be undertaken until fall because the proper 

 remedy to be applied can be used only when the trees are dormant. 

 On the first of November twenty-five men were taken to the State 

 College and given special training concerning the San Jose" Scale 

 and similar pests, and then sent over the State as inspectors and 

 demonstrators. Last fall over 2,000 premises were inspected and 

 scale was detected on more than one-half of them, many owners 

 of which did not know that it was this pest that was causing the 

 death of their trees. During the month of November as well as 

 December, 183 practical orchard demonstrations were given, and over 

 5,000 persons were present at these public meetings aud heard what 

 our representatives had to say and saw the method of saving their 

 trees from this foe. These were nearly all practical fruit growers 

 and immediately prepared to make personal use of the information 

 thus given them. The hundreds of congratulatory letters and re- 

 marks that have reached us show that this work has been appre 

 dated and this is, indeed, encouraging. Fruit growers and farmers 

 commenced to order apparatus and spray and save their fruit trees, 

 and this work will result in saving for the citizens of this State, 

 and consequently for the State itself, over one hundred times as 

 much as the cost of the fruits and trees alone, besides the additional 

 effect of better care and protection of other kinds of farm crops, 

 preservation of shade trees and ornamental shrubbery and other 

 good results. This will be more fully outlined in our Bulletin for 

 February, 1906, which interested persons may procure free from this 

 office. This contains details of the methods in this State which 

 are now recognized by the most competent and most successful per- 

 sons as being the best of any state in the Union. It is a pleasure 

 to know that our efforts to serve the citizens have been crowned 

 with success and are meeting the approval and encouragement we 

 desire, since we are helping them save their property. 



Until this year there was no satisfactory legislation applying to 

 the owners of private property, besides nurserymen, compelling 

 slothful or indigent persons to clean up their trees when infested 

 with San Jose" Scale. Thus the orchards of the most careful and 

 active persons were often treated, but the pests on the neglected 

 trees of neighboring premises would reinfest their trees. This has 

 been particularly unjust to the nurserymen because of our stringent 

 and successful efforts to prevent the spread of San Jose' Scale on 

 nursery stock. During the past few months, however, the people 

 of this State, especially the nurserymen, have commenced to take 

 advantage of that legislation which provides that when they notify 

 this Department (in writing) of the probability of scale on adjoining 

 or other premises we must send a man to inspect it and see that it 

 is treated in accordance yvith the demands of the occasion. Our* 

 work is certainly resulting in the control of the San Jose" Scale as 

 well as of other pests, while the expense for this is not great under 

 the present system. 



6. INSPECTION OF IMPORTED PLANTS, SEEDS AND FRUITS. 



Itjs especially important that we guard against the introduction 

 of any new pests into this State, and for that reason we are watch 

 ing shipments of plants, seeds and fruits from other countries. One 

 large shipment from Japan was inspected last spring by our Nursery 



