WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD I57 



(December 30, 1929) the Annual Report of the Agricultural Com- 

 missioner for the County of Los Angeles for 1929, and the extent of 

 the operations in regard to insect control is amazing. Compulsory 

 spraying in orange groves is carried on in that county, and a great 

 deal of it is done by the county authorities ; 29,299 acres were fumi- 

 gated or sprayed, for example, during the past year. The county has 

 employed no less than 150 permanent and temporary horticultural 

 inspectors and no less than 103 temporary insectary employees. The 

 quarantine service has been extremely rigid, and during the past nine 

 years no less than 10,159,300 trees, plants, and packages, coming into 

 the county, have been inspected. The extent to which one of the Cali- 

 fornia counties is distributing ladybirds for tlje destruction of the 

 Citrus mealybug is shown by this report. Fire destroyed one of the 

 laboratories on March 29, causing loss of material for the production 

 of four million beetles, but this plant contained only one-third of the 

 total available productive material. By extending the facilities at the 

 other laboratory (at Downey) to the limit, borrowing 320,480 lady- 

 birds from the Ventura County insectaries, and the direct purchase 

 by Citrus growers cooperatives of 1,264,890 beetles from outside 

 insectaries, which were delivered to the county insectary for liberation, 

 it was possible to carry out a seasonal liberation program as planned. 

 A total of 6,472,970 ladybirds was handled, and these were liberated 

 over 1,067 Citrus estates, representing a total of 11,043 acres. And 

 yet all this was done in one county ! What must the great State have 

 done as a whole? 



During the earlier period there was at least one good man who kept 

 his head and who deserves much praise. That was Alexander Craw. 

 While closely associated with Mr, Cooper and other important men 

 in California, he was greatly interested in other aspects of applied 

 entomology than the one of natural control, although he was deeply 

 interested in the success of the Australian ladybird and believed in 

 the carrying on of much work of that kind. He was made Quaran- 

 tine Officer of the State Board of Horticulture at an early date, and 

 did admirable service in the administration of the State's pioneer 

 quarantine regulations. His grasp of the entomological problems of 

 the State was admirably displayed in his bulletin entitled " Destruc- 

 tive Insects ; Their Natural Enemies ; Remedies and Recommenda- 

 tions," published in Sacramento in 1891. It is a comprehensive paper 

 of 50 pages, very well illustrated and giving a good summary of reme- 

 dies and of spraying apparatus. It is of note that he lists 64 dealers in 

 spraying machinery in the State of California. 



