THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 465 



HORTICULTURAL QUARANTINE IN SOUTHERN 



CALIFORNIA. 



By A. S. HOTT. 



Occasionally brief articles have appeared in The Monthly Bulletin 

 which had, as their object, a report of the progress in and the status of 

 the quarantine work in California south of the Tehachapi. The present 

 article, in announcing a change in the headquarters of the Quarantine 

 Division in southern California, reports a step in the quarantine work 

 which of necessity wall produce a profound effect upon the work. For 

 three years past the Los Angeles Quarantine Station has been located 

 in the office of the County Horticultural Commissioner, who has very 

 kindly given up space for that purpose in his offices in the Hall of 

 Records. For the removal of the local Quarantine Station from tlie 

 Hall of Records to the present location in the Union League Building, 

 which has recently been selected as the headquarters for all state offices 

 in Los Angeles, two princi[)al causes are responsible. 



The rapid growth made by the various departments of the county 

 government, in w'hich the Horticultural Commission has fully partici- 

 pated, ha.s resulted in a serious congestion in the county buildings, with 

 the result that some depai'tments are being located outside the Court- 

 house and the Hall of Records. As a consequence of this condition it 

 Avas deemed necessary that the State Quarantine Division should make 

 room for the growing needs of the county departments. 



The rai)id growth and development in the quarantine work in 

 southern California is the other chief reason for this change of location. 

 It may prove of interest if w^e analyze briefly this growth of horticultural 

 quarantine in southern California, showing thereby the principal fac- 

 tors which go to compose this growth. At Los Angeles the quarantine 

 work occupies a peculiar position in the great size of the field of activ- 

 ities. Three transcontinental railroads have their freight and express 

 depots here, no one of which is within a half mile of the others. Add to 

 these six depots, at which must be inspected the horticultural products 

 brought into the State at this point, the post office, created by recent 

 legislation the parcel post terminal inspection point for Los Angeles 

 County, which completes the list of seven overland avenues of entry at 

 this point. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, 738,121 parcels of 

 horticultural materials were intercepted and inspected at these seven 

 depots. San Pedro, perhaps now more properly known as Los Angeles 

 Harbor, is situated 23.-14 miles from the Los Angeles County Courthouse. 

 A distance of four miles separates the docks of the outer harbor at 

 Minor Fill from the docks of the inner harbor at Wilmington. 



The itemized reports of the Los Angeles Quarantine Station for the 

 month of June over a period of four successive years from 1912 to 1915, 

 inclusive, show a tremendous increase in the number of ships met and 

 inspected and in the total number of parcels of horticultural products 

 examined. In June, 1912, with 3,436 parcels of horticultural materials 

 and nineteen ships, three lots of contraband fruits from fruit fly coun- 

 tries were intercepted and destroyed. The report for June, 1915, 

 accounts for 36,862 parcels of horticultural imports and forty ships 

 showing fourteen lots of contraband fruits from fruit fly countries. 



3—19452 



