580 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



horticultural quarantine work the co-operation of the United States 

 Treasury Department was promptly obtained and official orders in the 

 nature of Treasury Decisions were sent out broadcast. A "T.D." in 

 the Customs service is the same as a general order to an army; it is 

 imperative, absolute, final; admits of no deviation, and meets with 

 none; means just what it says; applies to every individual in the 

 service, and is carried out to the letter. If a "T.D." prohibits any 

 article from passing a stated point, that is all there is to it ; the article 

 in question does not pass. As an illustration of this statement, I have 

 stopped writing this article at this point long enough to inspect a ship- 

 ment of Mexican mangoes that were turned over to one of my inspectors 

 on this 25th day of June, 1913, by the Customs inspector at the San 

 Francisco post office ; a package by registered parcel post from Mexico 

 addressed to Luisa de Antonio, 12 Scott street, San Francisco, in which 

 were found, confiscated and destroyed thirteen mangoes. 



For the permanent peace of mind of the fruit growers of California 

 in so far as the Mexican fruit fly is concerned, I herewith reproduce a 

 Treasury Decision that I found in evidence at every port of entry on 

 the boundary line between Mexico and the United States, and what is 

 more to the point, I found the provisions set forth in the same being 

 put into effect: 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES CUSTOMS SERVICE, 

 OFFICE OF THE COLLECTOR. 



To Customs Inspectors: 



"Referred to Notice of Quarantine No. 5, (Foreign), under the Plant Quarantine 

 Act of Augiast 20, 1912, (T.D. 33110), prohibiting the importation from Mexico of 

 certain fruit, the Secretary of Agriculture requests that your attention be called 

 ^ "S,'^^^ *° ^^^ desirability of excluding all fruit covered in this Notice of Quarantine. 



The Secretary adds that the danger from a small quantity of fruit which may be 

 carried by travelers in their hand baggage is as great, if not greater, than that which 

 might be offered for commercial entry, and that such travelers if en route for Cali- 

 fornia, for example, might easily carry Mexican oranges with them into the citrus 

 districts, and finding them wormy throw them out of the car windows or otherwise 

 dispose of them, thus introducing the Mexican orange maggot into the very heart of 

 our most important citrus district. The Secretary desires, therefore, that you be 

 made fully cognizant of this danger. 



For the reasons above set forth, you are enjoined to observe the greatest care to 

 exclude all the fruit in question." 



^ T.^^^Ji'^its referred to are Oranges, Sweet Limes, Mangoes, Achras, Sapotes, Grape- 

 fruit, Peaches, Guavas, and Plums. (T.D. 33071, 33110, 33247.)" 



Try and realize what this means. The rank and file of that great 

 army the United States Customs service, awakened to a true sense of 

 the fact that there are other things more permanently injurious, more 

 deadly and fatal to California's future than opium;' that in the final 

 analysis a maggoty mango is more to be dreaded as an ultimate treasury 

 depleter than all the diamond smugglers that ever crossed the border; 

 that the finding and confi.seation of fruit fly material is one of the para- 

 mount purposes of searching personal baggage and ships' interiors; that 

 a string bean has now as much significance as a string of pearls, and 

 you will begin to obtain a true perspective of the system of protection 

 that has developed mainly as a result of the practical persistent work, 

 the examples and the precepts set and maintained by the horticultural 

 quarantine officers of the State of California. 



