21 



From there we went on to Victoria, where there is a small experiment 

 station under Mr. Mitchell, who has been located there for fifty years, and 

 is an authority on the natural history of Texas. 



At San Antonio I made arrangements for going on to Mexico cid Laredo 

 having telegraphed to Professor Koebele, who had left Alameda the week 

 before and gon-^ down via El Paso. Here I parted with Dr. Howard, who 

 was returning next day rid Chicago, and with Professor Hunter, who went 

 back to Dallas. 



I left San Antonio at 10 a.m. and crossed into Mexico in the evening at 

 Laredo. All the country after leaving San Antonio was poor level land 

 covered with low Mesquite bushes, and after crossing the Rio Grande River, on 

 the l>order, the country became worse. On Sunday morning we were travers- 

 ing the true Mexican dtsert, with its miles of sand, cacti of a dozen different 

 kinds, scattered scrubs and low hills, with small mud village? and flocks of 

 goats. San Luis Pobosi, the only town of any size, was passed in the 

 afternoon. 



Early on the following morning I arrived at Mexico City, where Professor 

 Koebele met me at the railway station, and I took up quarters in the 

 Itiburdie Hotel. I presented my credentials to the Secretary of the Depart- 

 ment de Fomento, who informed me that Professor Herrera was away sick, 

 but sent me on to Dr. Giandra, his assistant, who made most of the arrange- 

 ments for me while in the city. We went through the departmental 

 collections, which are not extensive but very interesting. The Mexican 

 Fruit Fly (Trypeta ludens) is the most important pest, from a commercial 

 point of view, as it has caused so many difficulties with the export of oranges 

 into the United States. I, however, propose to deal with this pest in the 

 Appendix (Fruit Flies). The other pests of the orange are the well-known 

 scale insect Chio'iaspis cifri, and three species of longicorn beetles 

 Instenaspis verticulis, Insdendrobium maxillosus, Insmalacopterus lineolatus* 



Professor A. L. Herrera is chief of the Commission of Parasitologia, which 

 takes the place of the Entomological Branch here, and he has charge of the 

 work of dealing with insect pests, and has a Federal Commission at Yutapec, 

 Morelos County, with a vote of money to administer the Act dealing with 

 the destruction of fruit-flies. Their methods are similar to those we enforce, 

 the cleaning up of the orchards and the destruction, by burning and burying, 

 of all infested fruit; and they claim that there has been a very marked 

 diminution in the amount of infested fruit since they enforced these measures. 

 They have destroyed all the old fences round the orchards, and replaced them 

 with wire and posts; and a number of people have leen fined for not cleaning 

 up their orchards. 



Most of the oranges over tho local supply are shipped in crates to the 

 eastern portion of the United States. These oranges are examined and 

 passed by the State inspector, who gets a certificate from the mayor of the 

 district, under which they are exported. 



From the Inspector's report (for September, 1907), there are 9,502 orange 

 trees in Morelos district from which 785,738 oranges were exported, and 

 1 9,534 were destroyed on account of infestation of fruit-fly. Many of the larger 

 growers, seeing the value of clean orchards, have cleaned theirs at their own 

 expense. A great number of experiments have been carried out in the 

 laboratory on the action of chemicals upon the maggots ; and the inspectors in 

 some places where wood is scarce are allowed to inject beneiue into infested 

 oranges to kill the maggots instead of burning them. Experiments have also 

 been made in spraying the trees with a decoction of the foliage of an 

 Apocynnceous plant (Haplophyton cimicidum), commonly known as the 



