THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 539 



REPORT OF THE QUARANTINE DIVISION. 



San Francisco, CxYL., November 29, 1915. 



To the Ho-norable A. J. Cook, State Commissioner of Horticulture, 

 Sacramento, California. 



Sir: Under instructions, I am writing this resume of the work of 

 the Horticultural Quarantine Service of the State Commissioner of 

 Horticulture covering the period of the past four years. 



Quarantine work is largely a matter of executing certain regulations 

 in the arena of every-day business life, and the application of common- 

 sense to the actual practice is more important to success than the ability 

 to relate in detail a pertinent description of the occurrences. Very 

 few people, even the crop producers themselves, have any idea to what 

 lengths — under legal sanction— this quarantine work has been carried 

 during the past four years. It now embraces in addition to imports by 

 rail and sea, the authorized inspection of the personal belongings of 

 passengers arriving in domestic ships direct from Hawaiian ports, as 

 also all plant products entering the State through the medium of the 

 United States mail, and the system of providing for the reception and 

 inspection of all this material has been developed until friction at any 

 point has been practically eliminated. Interference with modern 

 traffic arrangements is fatal to the continued success of applying any 

 provision of a regulatory nature, and every effort has been made by the 

 present administration to avoid this pitfall without sacrificing any 

 element of safety in the matter of supervision of all imports of plant 

 products. 



The factors that have made this progress in the work of the division 

 possible have been, first, the admirable provisions of the present State 

 quarantine law passed in special session of the legislature January 2, 

 1912. These in reality constitute an epitome of the requirements in 

 this work based on an actual experience of many years and arranged 

 in legal form by a competent jurist. That they are as a Avhole safe, 

 sane and workable is evident from the fact that not a single legal eon- 

 test has been made of any rulings as to the disposition of horticultural 

 imports since these provisions became a law and applicable. 



Still another factor of importance has been the increase in the inspec- 

 tion force. This, under the present administration, has been practi- 

 cally doubled, with the result that the volume of imports intercepted 

 and inspected has grown from an average of 55,000 parcels a year up 

 to 1,216,018 parcels in the year of 1914. A proper digestion of those 

 simple figures should be proof of the wisdom shown in increasing the 

 inspection force and a guarantee that a ciuarantine of proper propor- 

 tions is now being maintained. This increase in the number of inspec- 

 tors has also enhanced the standing of the service with the common 

 carriers, who now realize that in complying Avith regulations prompt 

 attention will be given to the shipments in their hands, and the neces- 

 sity of explaining to anxious consignors the cause of delayed delivery 

 obviated. 



In the clerical department of the division a system has been estab- 

 lished whereby records of each transaction under the law are instantly 



