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REPORT ON HORTICULTURAL QUARANTINE IN- 

 SPECTION WORK. 



Honolulu, T. H., August 8, 1906. 

 To the Honorable 



Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, 

 Honolulu, T. H. 



Gentlemen : Since my last report to you at your meeting June 

 20th last, I have to report the following synopsis of work done 

 in the Entomological Division : 



ARRIVALS. 



During that time fifty-eight (58) steamships and sailing ves- 

 sels have entered the port of Honolulu from outside the Terri- 

 tory. We found the following freight, twelve thousand eight 

 hundred and fifty-seven (12,857) packages of fruits and vege- 

 tables; fifteen (15) packages of plants and twenty-nine (29) 

 packages of plants and seeds by mail. 



MISUNDERSTANDING REGARDING PLANT AND FRUIT FUMIGATION. 



We are frequently accosted by parties that have received 

 plants — especially by mail — "that their plants were killed by 

 fumigation," whereas the facts are no plants are even injured 

 by that treatment nowadays, as we fully understand the amount 

 of hydrocyanic acid gas each species will stand and the time ex- 

 posure required tOi destroy the various class of insects to be 

 treated. Parties receiving such plants, seldom, or never take 

 into consideration that their plants have been in transit from eight 

 to twenty days, under conditions other than natural. In most 

 cases they are shriveled and dried up and such soft wooded plants 

 as geranium, heliotrope, petunia, etc., are packed tight with all 

 their foliage to heat and rot and wdien they arrive are in any- 

 thing but growing condition, and instead of being the fault of 

 the inspectors a^nd fumigation, we frequently are the means of 

 rescuing plants from death by applying a little moisture to the 

 roots of those that are very dry, or by removing the rotted leaves 

 and stems of others. The postmaster, or one of his assistant's 

 attention is always called to such packages when they arrive in 

 bad condition. 



