IT3 



REPORTS OF HORTICULTURAL OUARANTLNE IN- 

 SPECTION WORK. 



Honolulu, Hawaii, April 3, 1907. 

 To the Honorable Board of 



Agriculture and Forestry, 



Honolulu, T. H. 



Gentlemen: During the months of January, February and 

 March we inspected tiiirty-five steam and sailing yessels from the 

 mamland, seventeen from the Orient, ten from Australia and* 

 eight from other points, in all seventy-one vessels that arrived 

 from outside the Territory, on which we found twenty-four thou- 

 sand nine hundred sixty-live (24,965) packages of fruits and 

 vegetables, twenty (20) bales, boxes and cases of plants and trees, 

 and one hundred and fifty-nine (159) packages of seeds and 

 plants by mail. Of the above, twenty-two (22) cases of fruit 

 and fifty-seven (57) packages of plants and trees were infested 

 with injurious insects and were therefore destroyed. Evidently 

 greater care is now being exercised in the selection of fruit and 

 plants sent to this Territory. All imports. found slightly infested 

 with insects already established here were fumigated with hydro- 

 cyanic acid gas or carbon bisulphide before delivery. 



In accordance with your instructions, we have endeavored to 

 locate all the young Indian mangoes which have been propagated 

 from the trees that were imported and planted a few years ago, 

 before the present inspection law was in force. The most of 

 these trees have been located and treated and a record of them 

 taken, so that they may be reinspected again later on. 



Because of the widespread existence of "Asparagus rust" on 

 the mainland, we now make a practice of dipping in "Bordeaux 

 mixture'' all such roots received. 



A shipment of seven hundred and twenty cases of onions ar- 

 rived from Australia on the S. S. Sonoma on February 20 'that 

 had been damaged by salt water. In some of the cfecayed bulbs 

 we observed numbers of very small w-hite maggots and pupae and 

 in breeding out a few they proved to be, as I suspected, "Pomace 

 flies'' (Drosophila), usually found around decaying fruit, or other 

 vegetable matter, and which are classed as scavengers. 



From dead specimens of the "melon fly'' {Dacus atcuj'bitac) 

 received by this Division from the government entomologists of 

 India, we learn of the existence of several parasites that prevent 

 its seldom or ever becoming a pest there. An efifort should" be 

 made to introduce these parasites here by way of Hongkong. This 

 would be a difficult experiment owing to the great distance, but 

 the undoubted benefit to the melon industry of this Territory, in 

 case these parasites were successfully introduced and established, 



