542 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



and a great effort is now being made by practically every county horti- 

 cultural commissioner to perfect this branch of the work. 



Much lecture work has been done in the newer fruit growing sections 

 of the State, Avhere the people have been most eager for help. One 

 hundred lantern slides have been prepared and are a valuable aid in the 

 work. One set of fifty of these is used in a general lecture on pruning, 

 and the other fifty on pear culture and orchard practices in general 



It is necessary to spend at least half the time in the office in order to 

 attend to correspondence, write up notes gathered from field investiga- 

 tions, prepare Monthly Bulletin articles and lectures, compile crop 

 reports, attend to photographic work and other routine office matters. 



Respectfully submitted. 



Geo. p. Weldon, 

 Chief Deputy State Commissioner 

 of Horticulture. 



REPORT OF THE STATE INSECTARY. 



Sacramento, Gal., November 29, 1915. 



To tlie Honorable A. J. Cook, State Commissioner of Horticulture, 

 Sacramento, California. 



Sir: In response to your request for a brief and concise resume of 

 the work of the State Insectary during my connection with the Com- 

 mission, I take pleasure in submitting the following: 



As defined by the law, the function of the State Insectary is to 

 import, rear and distribute beneficial insects ; consequently almost the 

 entire efforts of the institution have been bent toward maintaining this 

 work on an efficient and thoroughly scientific basis, our aim being to 

 secure and establish in the State such parasites of the important pests 

 as our means would permit. As the black scale and the citrus mealy 

 bug are probably our worst introduced pests (certainly the former takes 

 the first place), our attention was primarily devoted to these. A large 

 number of the natural enemies of these pests have been found in foreign 

 lands, and their transportation to California attempted. Naturally, 

 there Avere and will continue to be many failures. The difficulty of 

 transporting alive for such long distances these frail creatures is little 

 realized. The war in Europe has rendered the work doubl}^ difficult, 

 and in some cases the shipments had to be entirely discontinued, owing 

 to the disorganization of shipping facilities. In spite of these handi- 

 caps, however, we have been able to introduce into this State the follow- 

 ing beneficial insects : 



Coccophagus orientalis Hoav., an internal parasite of the two-thirds 

 grown black scale, from South Africa. Tavo good colonies Avere placed 

 in the field, one in the north and one in the south. It aa^is found breed- 

 ing during the summer, and is probably established — a very promising 

 species, as it destroj^s the scale at a stage in its development Avhich at 

 present is free from attack. 



