THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 625 



HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS FROM JAPAN. 



Working under a well defined policy of permanent progress in every 

 phase of the service, and with particular reference to horticultural 

 material intended for exhibition at the Panama-Pacific International 

 Exposition, the executive head of the quarantine division at San Fran- 

 cisco and the Japanese Consulate at that port have been co-operating 

 for some time in an effort to improve the condition of trees and plants 

 imported into California and the United States in general from the 

 nurseries of Japan. The equity of each phase of the situation has been 

 thoroughly discussed, and articles dealing with the practical methods 

 employed in California to keep nursery stock clean of insect pests and 

 in which the salient points that make for success in fumigation were 

 clearly portrayed and strongly emphasized, have been prepared and 

 furnished to the Consulate. These translated into Japanese were for- 

 warded to the officials in Japan, together with specimens in situ of 

 thirty different insect pests taken froni material found on imports from 

 that country by the quarantine inspectors at San Francisco during the 

 past season. 



The quarantine office at San Francisco is in receipt of information 

 from the Consulate that in conformity with the regulations of the Plant 

 Quarantine Act the Government of Japan has established a quarantine 

 service for the inspection and control of plants intended for exportation, 

 with officers and stations at Tokyo. Yokohama and Kobe. This is 

 decided progress, and its results will eventually be far reaching. — 

 Frederick Maskew. 



BLACK TREE PROTECTORS TO PREVENT RODENT INJURY 



SHOULD NOT BE USED. 



Often it becomes necessary to protect the trunks of young trees in 

 some way or other to keep rabbits and other rodents from barking them. 

 For this purpose various kinds of shields have been used with success. 



The writer recently examined some two-year-old olive trees in an 

 orchard near Madera, where heavy, black paper shields were being used 

 in this work. It was claimed at the time that they were put on, which 

 was during the previous season, that the fact that they were black 

 would not make them liable to damage the trees, this tendency having 

 been overcome by perforations in the paper. While this might be a 

 good selling point for these shields, in actual tests it did not prove 

 sufficient to prevent severe sun-scald on the south side of trees. My 

 visit to the orchard had been preceded by several days of very hot 

 weather ; many trees had recently died and many more were scalded on 

 the south side of the trunks. Every tree examined showed more or less 

 of this injury, even though the tops appeared perfectly normal. 



While the use of protectors is good both in keeping off rodents and 

 preventing sun-scald in some cases, a black protector should not be used 

 during the hot season at least. Light colored wooden or paper pro- 

 tectors will serve the purpose for which they are intended just as well 

 and will not endanger the lives of the trees from scald during the hot 

 weather. — Geo. P. Weldon. 



