THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 117 



QUARANTINE 2 ^, S DIVISION 



By Frederick Maskew. 



REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER, 1914. 



We are writing this leader for the report of the Quarantine Division 

 at the end of the third year of the present administration of the affairs 

 of the division. After tabulating the statistics for the period named, 

 we believe that the initiative measures introduced during this interim 

 have proven satisfactory, and in a large measure successful. Many 

 factors have entered into the sum total of this result, yet after a careful 

 digest of the same we feel that in the order of precedence in which they 

 are herewith related the three following have been mainly instrumental 

 in bringing about the present state of atfairs. 



First, beyond all question, are the provisions of the present state 

 quarantine law, passed in extraordinary session of the legislature and 

 approved January 2, 1912. The provisions of the law are in expression 

 an epitome of the experience and findings of the horticultural quaran- 

 tine officers of this state — men peculiarly fitted for the purpose — cover- 

 ing a period of thirty-two years of practice, and the same should be 

 jealously guarded and maintained against any abrogation or modifica- 

 tion by every crop producer in the State of California. Those whose 

 daily duty it is to put into execution all the provisions of this law have 

 found by experience that the contained provisions are sound and 

 workable — prime factors in any law. That the provisions of this law 

 are workable is evidenced by the fact that the itemized records of the 

 San Francisco station of the division show clearly that the inspectors at 

 that station were able to apply all the regulations provided to 1,216,018 

 parcels of plant products imported during the year 1914. That the 

 principles of this law are sound is evidenced by this same record, that 

 while 25,874 of similar parcels were ordered and were fumigated, and 

 2,341 parcels refused admittance into the state during this same period, 

 no legal contest of any of these rulings was inaugurated. 



Second are the physical activities of the quarantine inspectors. The 

 transportation system of today recognizes no holidays, nor do the winds, 

 tides and maritime schedules concern themselves with eight-hour regu- 

 lations. The orthodox trinity of success in quarantine work is tact, 

 courtesy and dispatch, and of the three, dispatch perhaps is the greatest. 

 Interference with traffic is fatal to continued and ultimate success, and 

 to their credit be it said, which the official records will support, the 

 inspectors of the State Quarantine Service have never permitted the 

 clock, the calendar nor circumstances to control their movements when 

 an inspection was necessary. 



Third have been the policies of the division. 



