314 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



By virtue of the authority conferred upon the State Horticultural 

 Quarantine Officer in section 2319-& of the Political Code of California, 

 the first quarantine order was issued in October, 1905. At intervals 

 since that date twenty-two other such orders have been issued from time 

 to time as necessity demanded for the purpose of preventing the intro- 

 duction into this State of insects or diseases injurious to horticulture, 

 or to prevent those already established in some sections of the State 

 from becoming distributed in otherwise clean sections. These quaran- 

 tine orders have been provocable of much criticism, and many 

 ingenious means have been employed at times to evade them, but in 

 the main they have accomplished their purpose and have kept out 

 of our orchards and farms many organisms that are not only undesirable 

 but dangerous and destructive to profits. 



The passing of the Plant Quarantine Act by congress in August, 

 1912, and the creation of the Federal Agricultural Board, was a fitting 

 climax to these pioneer efforts of California and other states to intro- 

 duce and maintain the principles of quarantine procedure as applied 

 to horticulture and its products, and the same is introduced here to 

 show that while California in general with all other states in the Union 

 is being greatly benefitted by the Federal regulations covering the 

 importation of nursery stock from foreign countries, California is 

 especially and immeasurably benefited and protected by the Federal 

 quarantines against the IMediterranean and Mexican fruit flies. Notice 

 of Quarantine No. 13, with its accessory regulations, issued by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, the United States Treasury Department and 

 the Postmaster General, is without doubt the most full, complete and 

 drastic document ever issued for a similar purpose. With its pro- 

 visions in full operation it furnishes to California in particular, and 

 to the United States in general, the greatest measure of protection 

 that could be devised against the possible introduction of the Mediter- 

 ranean and the melon fruit flies. 



Now I must ask your patience to go backward a little with me for 

 the purpose of considering in detail the present State quarantine law. 

 Good, bad or indifferent, as its provisions may be considered by those 

 whom it concerns from different angles of contact, the fact remains 

 it is the law under which the quarantine officers operate and the 

 provisions of which importers must comply with to enable them to 

 obtain the goods they desire to bring into and distribute throughout 

 this State. As a result of long practice in putting these provisions 

 into execution, I consider the prime protective feature of this law to 

 be the provision for inspection at the point of delivery. This appears 

 to be the shippers' principal bone of contention — the refusal on the 

 part of California inspectors to accept at face value certificates of 

 health and cleanliness based on an assumption that one inspection of 

 the stock growing in a given nursery guarantees its cleanliness for a 

 year, the same inspection being usually made while the trees and 

 plants are still in the ground with eighteen inches of soil covering the 

 roots and also hiding such forms of root infesting insects or diseases 

 to which these trees may be susceptible. Again, some nurserj'men who 

 specialize in a few standard varieties of two or perhaps three classes of 

 commercial fruit, and which same represent almost exclusively the horti- 

 cultural productions of their own state, overlook the fact that we 



