Introduction. 



By means of this little book the Horticultural Commissioner of 

 Los Angeles County and his staff send greeting to everyone in- 

 terested in growing plants and trees into whose hands the book 

 may fall, and more especially the careful painstaking fruit growers 

 who have figured so largely in making this and adjoining counties 

 the attractive abiding places which are drawing toward them the 

 appreciative people from all lands. 



Our office is in business for the purpose of assisting the tree 

 and plant grower in every way possible, not only to get the best 

 results for the present time, but to keep his, and his neighbors' 

 trees in such condition that the future results will be, at least, 

 equally gratifying, and if possible to better the conditions year 

 by year. 



In this work we have endeavored to meet the need for a col 

 lection of useful information along the line of our work, which 

 can be placed in our growers' hands, and which will, in condensed 

 form, give information helpful in almost any problem likely to 

 come to him in his ordinary experience. 



We do not intend, in any respect, to compete with the very 

 excellent literature issued from our State Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, but to condense and combine the information, in 

 most cases obtained from these bulletins, for more convenient 

 reference in any emergency. 



We are greatly indebted to this branch of the College of Agri- 

 culture, not only for the able treatises on the various insect and 

 plant matters, from which we have obtained much of the data for 

 this work, but also for copies of their illustrations which they 

 have so kindly provided for us; and for assistance in the same 

 way, our State Horticultural Commissioner's office is entitled to 

 our earnest expressions of appreciation. 



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