18 CROP PEST COMMISSION OP 



vail in Louisiana, the profitable production of cotton, upon as 

 large a scale as formerly, with the weevil present, will be im- 

 possible and the growing of cotton to the practical exclusion of 

 other crops must be succeeded by a diversified system of agricul- 

 ture. By the control of insects seriously injurious to crops other 

 than cotton, and by disseminating information concerning meth- 

 ods of successfully combating them, the profits derived from pro- 

 ducing such crops are materially increased and the advent of a 

 properly diversified system of farming is accordingly hastened. 



As illustrating the work being done along this line, we may 

 call attention to the fact that during 1905, for the first time, 

 Louisiana had a thorough inspection of all her fruit tree nurser- 

 ies, with the elimination of dangerous insects and diseases from 

 them, so that the fruit growers who now purchase fruit trees 

 from Louisiana nurseries obtain trees that are healthy, instead 

 of trees frequently infested with insects which cause their com- 

 plete destruction within three or four years after they are 

 planted out. 



The entrance of dangerous insects and diseases of fruits 

 from without the State is guarded against by the Commission en- 

 forcing quarantine regulations on shipments of nursery stock into 

 Louisiana from other States or countries. 



Although the Commission has done but one year's work 

 along this particular line, it has already prevented the dissemina- 

 tion of sufficient San Jose scale to infest all the orchards and 

 ornamental grounds of the State. 



The climate and soils of Louisiana are peculiarly adapted to 

 fruit production and that fruit growing may be encouraged, and 

 in some degree supplant the less profitable cotton production, 

 the Commission is inaugurating an active campaign against the 

 San Jose scale, undoubtedly the worst insect enemy with which 

 the fruit growers have had to contend. 



Louisiana conditions are likewise exceedingly favorable for 

 the production of live stock, the greatest drawbacks to success 

 being the Texas fever cattle tick and, in some sections of the 

 State, the horse-flies and deer-flies. 



The valuable work done by Prof. Morgan, former Entomolo- 

 gist of the Commission, in studying the life history and de- 

 velopment of the cattle tick and in devising a successful method 



