190 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



farmers by the use of 72,000 tons of poison bait prepared and spread 

 under the direction of his branch of the Dominion service. He also 

 shows that during 1925 and 1926 the red-backed cutworm damaged 

 the grain crops of Saskatchewan to the amount of $6,000,000 ; in 1921 

 the western wheat-stem sawfly damaged Saskatchewan to the extent 

 of $12,000,000; and the spruce bud-worm is said to have destroyed 

 150,000,000 cords of pulp- wood in Quebec. He adds the interesting 

 statement that this amount of wood manufactured into paper at today's 

 price would represent a loss of $7,000,000,000. 



MEXICO 



I made three official visits to Mexico before the outbreak of the 

 great revolution which ended the long Diaz administration. 



In 1898, when the subject of quarantine against injurious insects 

 was receiving much attention (emphasized, of course, by the gipsy 

 moth damage, the appearance of the Mexican cotton boll weevil in 

 Texas, and the embargoes placed by foreign countries upon American 

 fruits on account of the San Jose scale danger), the State of Cali- 

 fornia had become alarmed at the possibility that the so-called More- 

 los orange fruit-fly of Mexico would sooner or later infest the Citrus 

 orchards of that State, and the State had quarantined against Mexi- 

 can oranges and lemons. The Mexicans claimed that this was purely 

 a trade quarantine, since Mexican oranges from the State of Sonora 

 had been taking the early market away from the southern Cali- 

 fornians ; and the Mexicans claimed further that the orange fruit- 

 fly did not exist in northwest Mexico. 



In October, 1898, I started out with E. A. Schwarz from Washing- 

 ton. He left the train in Arizona to go to Williams, and I continued 

 to Nogales, thence taking the direct southern line though Hermo- 

 sillo, Sonora, to Guaymas on the Gulf of California. I spent some 

 days at each place. There was at that time a very considerable indus- 

 try in oranges at Hermosillo and a lesser one at Guaymas. I did con- 

 siderable collecting at each place, but failed to And a trace of the 

 fruit-fly. 



Incidentally, the news came of the battle of Manila Bay while I 

 was doing some beach collecting at Guaymas. The news was received 

 with surprised rage by the Mexicans, and a semi-intoxicated indi- 

 vidual, recognizing me as a Gringo, drew a large knife and attempted 

 to assassinate me. I had no hesitation, under the circumstances, in 

 exhibiting my ability as long-distance runner. Incidentally also, I 

 studied the tree cotton at San Jose de Guaymas, thinking that per- 



