THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 575 



QUARANTINE h2h»JS DIVISION 



Report for the Month of October, 1915. 



By Frederick Maskew. 



During the month of October, 1915, of which the following is a report 

 of the activities and findings of this Division for that period, two letters 

 came into our possession, and statements set forth in these documents 

 are so correlated and so intimately connected with the purpose of horti- 

 cultural quarantine work that, as a matter of history, we have decided 

 to offer excerpts from the same for publication. 



Writing from the Orient on December 19, 1902, Mr. George Compere, 

 in a letter to Alexander Craw, at that time quarantine officer at San 

 Francisco, among several other things offered the following advice and 

 warning : 



"The importation of citrus stock from the Orient should be dis- 

 couraged as much as possible by the growers of California. Aside 

 from the danger of introducing new insect pests, there are some 

 very destructive fungous diseases attacking citrus trees and fruit 

 here which we have no room for in our State. 



Writing from Tampa, Florida, under date of October 11, 1915, the 

 chairman of the Citrus Canker Committee sets forth, among other facts, 

 the following : 



"Representing the growers of citrus fruits in Florida, we call 

 on you and earnestly solicit your co-operation and support in join- 

 ing with us in a campaign now inaugurated in this state to appeal 

 to the next congress for a sufficient appropriation to exterminate 

 citrus canker from the United States of America. 



We are going before congress on the basis that this is a national 

 issue and the government should intercede and save an industry as 

 important as ours, and shall ask for a sufficient appropriation to 

 exterminate citrus canker from the United States by confiscation 

 of the property, extermination by fire of all trees in infected 

 groves and reimbursement to the owners for the value thereof. 

 This may take $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 or more ; we are now com- 

 piling data on Florida, and can soon ascertain within ten per cent 

 of accuracy what it will cost. ' ' 



This attempt to obtain Federal assistance on the part of the Citrus 

 Canker Committee has the full sympathy of every member of the Horti- 

 cultural Quarantine Division in California, and to this sympathy will 

 be added our active efforts to make clear to our representatives in 



