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that this Department send a qualified agent to Australia to collect and export to this z 

 country the parasites of the Fluted Scale (Icerya purchasi). Your petition is timely, 

 and I abundantly realize the importance of the action which you suggest. In reply 

 let me recite briefly the steps which have been taken during the past three years by 

 this Department in regard to this great pest of the California fruit-growers, in order 

 to place clearly before you the present condition of affairs. 



As a result of numerous petitions from your State, in the spring of 1836 a competent * 

 agent of the Division of Entomology was appointed and was located at Los Angeles 

 with instructions to carry out a certain line of experimentation which was mapped 

 out for him by the Entomologist, Professor Riley. Later in the season another agent 

 was sent to the same spot and the results of their combined work were published in « 

 the Annual Eeport of this Department for 1886, in an extended article by Professor I 

 Eiley, which detailed thoroughly the life history of the pest and contained authori- 1 

 tative recommendations concerning remedies. Some of the washes recommended in 

 this report were x>roven by careful experimentation to be perfectly efficacious and 

 quite within the means of the most indigent fruit-grower. 



Early in the spring of 1887 Professor Eiley visited California in person and invest!- ' 

 gated the sections of the State in which the Icerya occurs, and in an address before ll 

 your State Board at Riverside summarized his conclusions. Among other pointM 

 brought out in this address was the suggestion that it would be very desirable toil 

 introduce its natural enemies and parasites from Australia. He expressed his regretfl 

 that he would be unable to send one of his agents for the reason that Congress had 

 limited the field of his investigation to the United States, but said that California,! 

 or even Los Angeles County, could well afford to appropriate the funds for the send-* 

 ing of an expert to Australia to devote some months to the study of the parasites 

 there and to their artificial introduction into California. 



During the summer of 1887 the two agents previously mentioned — Messrs. D. W. 

 Coquillett and Albert Koebele— were continued in their work upon Icerya, and the 

 Division at Washington was engaged in an industrious correspondence with ento- 

 mologists in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, with a "view of ascertaining 

 facts bearing upon the natural habitat of this species and upon its natural enemies 

 iu these countries. The results of the additional experiments by the agents were 

 published in the Annual Eeport of the Department for 1887. Those reached by Mr.,] 

 Coquillett concerned chiefly the matter of treating trees with gases, while those 

 attained by Mr. Koebele related entirely to washes. Meantime it had been found 

 by correspondence that at least one important parasite existed in Australia, and 

 strong efforts were made by the Department and also by the California delegation ia jj 

 Congress to secure a specific appropriation for the purpose of studying and importing 

 this parasite. These efforts, as you well know, failed, as did also the equally strong 

 effort ou the part of this Department to have the clause in the appropriation bill, 

 restricting the payment of traveling expenses to expenses within the United States, 

 removed from the bill. The Department was thus rendered by Congress apparently j 

 powerless in the matter, but, fortunately, by a happy chance, which however will 

 not occur again, we were able to send an agent after all through the courtesy of the 

 Department of State. Congress had appropriated a large sum to enable this Gov- 

 ernment to exhibit at the Melbourne exposition, and the Secretary of State and the 

 chief of the commission, Mr. McCoppin, of California, were kind enough to set aside 

 a sufficient sum for this purpose, and Mr. Koebele went to Australia iu August and 

 accomplished the results with which you are already familiar. 



During the winter of 1888-'89 strong efforts were again made by this Department I 

 to secure the removal of the restricting clause concerning foreign travel with the 

 idea that, should Mr. Koebele's results warrant further importation of parasites, wo 

 would desire to send him or another agent again during 1880; in fact, to take just the 

 action which you have petitioned us to undertake'. This effort was apparently suc- 

 cessful, and, as tin* Entomologist understood, the appropriation clause passed Coo- } 



