16 STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



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tic customs service en route to California. This provides the oppor 

 tunity of inspection here, and in the absence of a national quarantine 

 law is a most helpful policy. In scores of cases the Federal authorities 

 have brought into this State plants infested with many serious pests. 

 Most of these importations have been intercepted. In one incident 30 

 tons of Asiatic plants intended for the Chico experimental gardens 

 were found badly infested, the tops removed, and the plants fumigated 

 One case may be cited to show the necessity of regulating the traffic- 

 in foreign plants. In the establishment of the date industry in Im- 

 perial County, the first lot of palms was received at Heber in 1904, 

 infested with Phenacococcus and Parlatoria (sps.) scales. These insects 

 had increased to such an extent this spring that the entire foliage of the 

 palms had to be removed and the torch applied to the trunks, and after 

 the palms had produced tons of fruit. But the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 Try is now standing firmly with the California officials and rendering 

 aid in every way to prevent the introduction of foreign insect pests. 

 Other importers are not inclined to cooperate with the State in quaran- 

 tine matters and an American association of nurserymen has carried 

 its opposition to the point of defeating all the bills yet introduced into 

 the national congress intended to safeguard our fruit interests. We 

 need a thorough Federal inspection service, and the issue should be held 

 before the public until an adequate law can be passed requiring such 

 inspection. 



MEXICAN ORANGE MAGGOT. 



The presence generally of Trypeta ludens in the orange districts of 

 Mexico is a continual menace to the citrus industry of California. In- 

 adequate laws, physical difficulties and restricted means have prevented 

 a satisfactory system of quarantine work heretofore, and yet every- 

 thing has been done that could be accomplished under the circumstances. 

 The first move made by the present State Quarantine Officer was to 

 secure a pledge from the railroad news service that no Mexican fruit 

 would be offered for sale on the trains. A careful investigation was 

 made of the laws and practices of Texas and Arizona regarding the 

 inspection of fruits and plants brought over the line from Mexico. 

 From these investigations it was learned that Texas inspected all nurs- 

 ery stock from Mexico, coming into the state at Laredo and El Paso, 

 but the officials had no authority for inspecting or quarantining fruit. 

 Then the commissioner of agriculture of Texas was asked to allow 

 California to place entomologists at Laredo and El Paso, to be com- 

 missioned as Texas officials and paid by California to inspect baggage 

 and freight crossing the line. That state has no law that would 

 .authorize such inspection, and the request was refused, with the state- 

 ment that Texas "would not justify an effort to inspect baggage, lug- 

 gage and packages coming into the United States from Mexico." 

 While treating the request with great interest and courtesy the com- 

 missioner of agriculture closed the negotiations with these remarks: 

 <; Our laws, however, do not extend to fruit coming into the state. I 

 am taking the whole matter up with the attorney general for an inter- 

 pretation of the national and state laws in regard to this matter." 

 The Commissioner is cooperating with us in every way possible, but 

 no change in the Texas laws has been made and the plan proposed could 

 not be adopted. Arizona laws afford us protection to some extent, as 



