544 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE STATE COMMISSION OF 



HORTICULTURE. 



Sacramento, Cal_., November 30, 1915. 



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

 Sacramento, California. 



Sib: In accordance with your request for a brief summary of the 

 publications of this Commission issued during the past four years I 

 beg to submit the following : 



Owing to the persistent demand for all sorts of information regarding 

 horticulture in general, and to a corresponding lack of available pub- 

 lications, it was found advisable, during the past four years, to pay 

 particular attention to the dissemination of such horticultural knowl- 

 edge as was deemed to be of value to the fruit growers of the State. 

 To meet the demand for such literature, in addition to the issuance of 

 special publications the publication of a monthly bulletin was inau- 

 gurated, beginning w^ith December, 1911. This bulletin is devoted to 

 horticulture in its broadest sense, with special reference to plant dis- 

 eases, and insect pests and their control. There has been state-wide 

 interest shown in this Monthly Bulletin, and judging from the applica- 

 tions — an average of 107 per month, all of which are personal requests— 

 the Bulletin has touched just the right spot in the State's diet of horti- 

 cultural literature. 



The ]\Ionthly Bulletin is sent free to all residents of California, and 

 is offered in exchange for bulletins of the Federal Government, experi- 

 ment stations, entomological and mj^cological journals, agricultural and 

 horticultural papers, and other publications of a similar nature. 

 Starting with less than 2,500 in 1912, the mailing list reached, on 

 November 20, 1915, a total of 6,353. One hundred and fifty Bulletins 

 go to foreign countries each month, including England, France, 

 Holland, Germany, Eussia. China, Japan. South Africa, Australia, 

 Italy, India, Argentina, the Philippine Islands, and the Hawaiian 

 Islands. Approximately 675 Monthly Bulletins are sent each month 

 to other states — to the various experiment stations, public libraries, 

 universities and public officials for which we receive valuable exchanges. 

 The rest of the Bulletins are sent to fruit growers, libraries of the cities, 

 universities and agricultural high schools, and to the various agricul- 

 tural journals. It is earnestly hoped that the fruit growers in the 

 State will avail themselves of the opportunity to receive this publica- 

 tion before it is necessary to close the list on account of shortage in the 

 printing fund of the Commission. 



The editor of the Bulletin endeavors to time the articles so that they 

 will appear just when the suggestions embodied in the articles should 

 be carried into effect by the grower. In this way the fruit grower will 

 have a chance to take advantage of these suggestions which, if not 

 published at the appropriate time, might not be of so much value. 



The treatises on the different fruits have been published with the 

 idea of conforming to the demands for literature on a particular fruit, 

 and because of the scarcity of available literature on that subject. As 



