8 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



natural laws and our inability to cope with the most (apparently) insig- 

 nificant of living insects. 



In view of the importance of this discovery, and the fact that all the 

 credit is due to California fruit-growers, they having originated and 

 urged the investigation, a complete history of all the circumstances 

 leading up to it should be written and compiled in book form and sent 

 to all the scientific schools and important libraries throughout the civ- 

 ilized world, in order to fix the record and establish, for all time to come, 

 the credit where it justly belongs. 



Albert Koebele is the discoverer of the Vedalia cardinalis, the Novius 

 Koebelei, the Rhizobii, the Orcus chalybeus and 0. Australasia, the Japan 

 ladybird, and many other valuable predaceous insects. To him the 

 credit belongs. 



I also recommend an appropriation of $5,000 per year to enable the 

 State Board of Horticulture to engage the valuable services of Mr. 

 Albert Koebele, and to keep him constantly traveling in foreign coun- 

 tries, as also in the United States, for the further investigation of para- 

 sites. 



As an instance of the importance of this work, I wish to state in this 

 place that Mr. D. 0. Mills . gave the use of the rooms now occupied by the 

 State Board in the Mills Building free for two years, up to July 1, 1897, 

 and in addition donated janitor service, light, and heat, representing an 

 amount of about $5,000, and said, in reference to this subject, that the 

 State Board had saved his trees and plants at Menlo Park, which were 

 to him of great value, and that it gave him pleasure to assist the Board. 



We have received most flattering and encouraging letters from Hawaii, 

 from Australia, from South Africa, and no doubt will be similarly com- 

 plimented from every civilized portion of the globe, where these valuable 

 parasites may be colonized. I am well aware of opposition and adverse 

 reports in our own midst, made by individuals who have not contributed 

 one dollar either in taxes or otherwise toward the promotion of this 

 investigation. 



There are thousands of dollars lost each year in spraying for the cod- 

 lin moth, and many more thousands are lost in the destruction of fruit 

 by this insect. That a parasite exists for it there is not a doubt. The 

 existence of such in Southern Europe was claimed by Mr. Gillet in the 

 first year of the organization of the State Board. We are constantly 

 menaced by various pests in both the farm and orchard, and the only 

 prudent course on our part is to keep pace with these pests by the dis- 

 covery of their natural enemies. 



To protect the fruit industry, and to secure the best results, we must 

 demand, as recommended, $5,000 annually to investigate parasites, 

 $6,000 for the bureau of statistics, and $5,000 for the uses of the State 

 Board. This, with the amount already provided for in the salaries of 

 the officers of the Board and the Clerk, $4,800, will make a total sum 

 of $20,800. 



In the official report of the State Controller for the forty-second fiscal 

 year, there was expended in the State in round numbers $8,000,000; of this, 

 $3,300,000 was spent for educational purposes; $2,500,000 for the indigent 

 poor and helpless, the aged, reform schools, truant homes, insane asylums, 

 and State prisons, making, with the estimate for coyote scalps of $190,000, 

 a total of about $6,000,000, or three fourths of the entire expenditures. 

 This is a very heavy burden upon the farmers and fruit-growers, who, 



