430 



THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



In Close relation' to the inspection and inseparable from it lie the control and 

 eradication troubles. Generally the man with a young orchard gladly does all he can 

 to ward off the destructive pests and, as the real commercial planting of fruit trees 

 began only five years ago with the incoming to the valley of new purchasers of land, 

 this locality may be termed to be yet in its infancy in the fruit game, consequently 

 this yearly increase in acreage is fast becoming a prominent factor in assisting the 

 inspection work of the county. We have men engaged in the fruit industry now who 

 have had successful experience in the same line of work in other places, they being 

 our largest fruit growers. These people are adopting the improved methods of fruit 

 culture, thus giving the industry an additional impetus greatly aiding the inspection 

 work by the proofs of the efficiency of such work. The inspection of older infested 

 orchards combined with control measures has been the first duty of this office and 

 now with our stronger horticultural laws the work will be made much lighter. 



Many difficulties are encountered in the inspection of the incoming nursery stock. 

 These, no doubt, exist in all places, but it might be of interest to some to point out 

 local difficulties peculiar to Inyo. Railroad stations are as yet several miles from the 

 towns and agricultural districts. Vast acres of undeveloped land must be traveled 

 over to reach the stations and the orchard plantings as well. The establishment of 

 a central place to which all shipments could come was seriously considered. This 

 wonid lighten the work of inspection to a large extent in point of travel but would 

 necessitate the work of repacking in a careful manner all shipments for the reshipping 

 to their destination, thus causing delay and dissatisfaction on the part of the shipper 

 and consignee. 



To obviate the difficulties of depot inspection work arrangements have been made 

 with all freight agents and express agents to notify the commissioner's office by 

 phone of the arrival of any shipment that comes under horticultural inspection. If 

 the office where such shipment is received can not be reached in a few hours the 

 agent is authorized to tack a release card (a supply of which is furnished) on the 

 shipment authorizing its release to the consignee, subject to inspection before plant- 

 ing. In this way the person receiving the goods, knowing in what condition they 

 arrive, is much better satisfied with the inspection work. 



SUGGESTIONS ON WEED CONTROL. 



By Kent S. Knowlton, County Horticultural Commissioner, Bakersfleld, Cal. 



In writing this article I do not offer it as a scientific dissertation on the eradication 

 and control of weeds, but do offer it with a sincere hope that it may be of some value 

 to a fellow commissioner who is now engaged or is about to undertake a campaign 



against noxious weeds in his county. We are now 

 finishing our fifth year of contiuuouswarfare-against- 

 noxious weeds in this county with good and only 

 partial results in the various districts. 



In looking back over our work one feels as though 

 he were finishing a hard day's labor and turns once 

 again to see the results he has obtained. Right here 

 let me say that there can be no possible success with- 

 out a thoroughly complete organization, and the 

 amount of success is in direct proportion to the com- 

 pleteness of the system, and the organization of the 

 farmers and landowners, that they may have the 

 proper understanding among themselves and heartily 

 support the commissioner. 



A weed campaign must necessarily emanate from 

 the landowners themselves, with the commissioner as 

 a means of bringing about the desired results by 

 keeping this organized machinery continually operat- 

 . ing as smoothly as possible. In one of the districts 

 in this county where we have secured the poorest 

 results I would say it was through our failure to 

 get the farmers to cooperate with each other. 



I will not touch on the field methods of eradication and control of the various 

 weeds, for so many articles have been written on this subject (hat what I could 



