April, '13] MORRILL: ENTOMOLOGICAL PIONEERING 187 



It is a matter of record which required no little searching of the 

 statutes of the Territory of Arizona to disclose, that two laws relating 

 to insects were enacted before the Horticultural Inspection Law of 

 1909. In 1891 a law was enacted providing for County Boards 

 of Horticultural Commissioners to be appointed upon the initiative of 

 orchard owners after the plan and with the authority and duties pre- 

 scribed by the similar law at that time in effect in California. As far 

 as known no county ever availed itself of the opportunity for horti- 

 cultural protection afforded by this law and its existence has been 

 generally forgotten. . 



The discovery of foul brood in a few colonies of bees in the Salt River 

 Valley led to the enactment of an excellent law in 1899 entitled "An 

 act providing for the suppression of foul brood among bees." Prompt 

 action was taken in the extermination of diseased colonies and foul 

 brood has never been known to exist ' in the state since that time, 

 although in the Salt River Valley alone there are today between four- 

 teen and fifteen thousand colonies of bees. For some unexplained 

 reason the Foul Brood Law was not included in the 1901 Revision of 

 the Territorial Statutes and at present we are as a consequence with- 

 out any provision for apiary inspection or legal authority to act in 

 case of the discovery of bee diseases. 



The only insect legislation other than the foregoing, up to the year 

 1909, was embodied as a single clause^ in an appropriation bill passed 

 by the territorial legislature in 1907 providing the State Experiment 

 Station authority to inspect and treat date palms for insect pests. 



The first permanent organization of an entomological department 

 in Arizona was provided for in 1909 by the passage of the Horticultural 

 Inspection Law. The writer was appointed Entomologist for the 

 Arizona Horticultural Commission and at the same time Entomolo- 

 gist for the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station in September of 

 that year. The progress of entomological work in the state since that 

 time has been recorded in the four annual reports of the Arizona Hor- 

 ticultural Commission and in the twenty-first and twenty-second 

 annual reports of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. 



General Climatic and Agricultural Conditions. The climate 

 of the state of Arizona is characterized by a low rainfall, low humidity 

 and a high percentage of sunshine. From Yuma with an altitude of 141 

 feet, a mean annual rainfall of 3.13 inches, an average humidity of 46 

 per '^ent, an annual mean temperature of 72.1° F., and recorded ex- 

 treme temperatures of 22° and 118° F., Arizona includes under cul- 

 tivation all gradations up to Flagstaff at an elevation of 6,907 feet 



1 The text of this clause is included in the First Annual Report of the Arizona Hor- 

 ticultural Commission, p. 2. 



