THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 733 



QUARANTINE !2 Mk S DIVISION 



By Frederick Maskew, Chief Deputy Quarantine Officer, San Francisco, California. 



The real battle of the human species for the possession and enjoyment 

 of the earth has resolved itself into a universal continuous fight against 

 insect pests. In Continental as well as Island America, the medicos are 

 having a never-ending conflict with mosquitoes, flies and bacilli. The 

 work and triumphs of the sanitary officers in the canal zone are almost 

 equal to those of the engineering staff. The Marine Health Service is 

 constantly at war with the rats and squirrels, but the prime purpose 

 of the combat is directed against the disease-bearing insects that infest 

 these rodents. The world-wide inspection for and control measures 

 against cattle ticks is maintained as much, if not more, in hopes of 

 reducing the ultimate cost of shoes than to augment the comfort of the 

 animal that wears the hide, while the boll-weevil influences the cost of 

 calico in common with the operations of the speculators in cotton 

 futures. If the maggot fly pest of sheep could be eliminated from the 

 flocks of the world, the fabric most in vogue among the proletariate 

 would be all wool and a yard wide, rather than shoddy, and the mysteries 

 of schedule K would probably cease to be of interest. 



In our own particular domain we are concerned principally with the 

 insects and diseases hostile to the maximum production of food plants— 

 especially the fruit-flies— and the strict administration of such laws and 

 regulations as provided for their exclusion from the fields and orchards 

 of California by the State and Federal governments. This, in itself, 

 is an undertaking that demands eternal vigilance at our maritime ports 

 of entry with the ever-increasing commerce from the ports of Oceanica 

 and those of the Orient and Central America. But we have not over- 

 looked the importance of the interior points open to the entrance of 

 these pests, and have hopes of ultimately unifying both the system and 

 methods of applying all the provisions of the state quarantine laAv in 

 the matter of horticultural imports throughout the entire State. 



REPORT FOR MONTH OF SEPTEMBER, 1913. 



SAN FRANCISCO STATION. 

 Horticultural imports. p^^^^j^ 



Ships inspected '^l „ _orv 



Passed as free from pests i o2c 



Fumigated ^■^'*^ 



Destroyed or returned • ^x^ 



Contraband destroyed ^ 



Total parcels horticultural products for the month 63,599 



Horticultural exports. P^^^^i3 



Inspected and certified 4,004 



