88 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



Again, each fall the particular office of which the writer has charge 

 receives many inquiries regarding the best root stock to use with 

 apricots under certain conditions. The State University can answer 

 this question in a general w^ay for general conditions, but our office is 

 gathering data on this point by keeping track of individual shipments 

 which in a few years will be of great value to every district in our 

 county. These are merely examples of points on which no other 

 organization is in so good a position to get absolute data for individual 

 localities, and if our records are properly kept they should form a large 

 supplement to the University experiment work. 



The second main division of our work is the orchard inspection for 

 scale pests and plant diseases, including, of course, field inspection for 

 weed pests, etc. The third division is the treatment of infested 

 orchards and fields. In our records the inspection and treatment are 

 kept somewhat together. In many ways we may be likened to field 

 superintendents of horticulture on large ranches, with the whole county 

 as our field. We must be familiar, a good deal in detail, with condi- 

 tions in various districts and even in individual orchards. In the best 

 organized of our counties each local inspector is expected to know, per- 

 sonally, the condition of every orchard in his district. Such facts as 

 he turns in to the commissioner regarding these orchards are so tabu- 

 lated by the latter that the essential points can be referred to at any 

 time. In some of the smaller counties, where there is a minimum of 

 work, much of the necassary data can be remembered fairly accurately 

 during the term of a commissioner, but in the larger counties this is 

 impossible, and nowhere is it possible to pass on information to a new 

 administration without carefully prepared written records. 



Referring again to the Ventura County office (and this is equally 

 true of almost all the offices), any one can find out from us when any 

 particular grove was inspected, what was found in it, whether it has 

 been treated, etc. For in.stance, a little over a year ago the oak root 

 fungus (Armillaria mellea) was found in Ventura County. Since then 

 its distribution has been quite generally worked up, and the owners of 

 infected trees have all been notified of its presence. Records of these 

 inspections are on file, and from them the rate of spread in various soils, 

 etc., may be determined. On the other hand, certain old reports of 

 this office show that pests were found in certain districts of the county, 

 and were treated, but it is impossible to find the exact, or even approxi- 

 mate location of these infestations, and in order to be sure of the work 

 the whole district would have to be reinspected. 



Other items which are frequently kept regarding treatment work are 

 the method, the operator, the cost, and the result. In some counties all 

 operators are licensed and as the responsibility of granting such licenses 

 rests largely on the commissioner, data of the sort mentioned is necessary 

 to know if these licenses should be continued or revoked. Besides that, 

 the grower will very often feel that the cost is too high and our office will 

 be appealed to for an opinion. It is a significant fact that in no case 

 where the records of cost of previous treatments were on file in the 

 writer's office has there been the least trouble in deciding the contro- 

 versies that have arisen. 



The fourth division of our work is experimental. Although some 

 claim that this is not our sphere, yet in my judgment it is almost essen- 

 tial that at least a certain amount of experimentation be carried on in 



