PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 15 



eration the diversity of conditions and the magnitude of the difficulties 

 of cultivation in the insimilitude of our soils and situations. And yet 

 no field is so white for the harvest of investigation, no territory so 

 urgent with the demands for scientific examination and practical con- 

 clusion. To fulfill its field and educational mission the University 

 must have masterful guidance, faithful service, and constant cooper- 

 ation. The latter is hereby pledged, as far as the State Horticultural 

 Commission is concerned, for I have subscribed for years to its every act 

 and policy. To give spice to my sincere indorsement of this great in- 

 stitution, I wish to note one exception. I do not approve of the late 

 attempt to exterminate the white fly with printer-'s ink, for the process 

 is as tedious and tasteless as ineffective. Otherwise I continue to favor 

 the policies and applaud the successes of the University in the large 

 work it is doing for the farmers of California. 



No less important is the work of the office which I hope to represent 

 with some approval for the next four years. The office of State Com- 

 missioner of Horticulture is largely executive and is charged with 

 duties and endowed with powers neither possessed nor needed by any 

 other department. It is a clearing house of horticultural information, 

 not a bureau of scientific investigation other than is necessary in making 

 effective its quarantine department, and its control of insect pests and 

 plant diseases ; it is the horticultural patrolman of the State, its badge 

 of authority the quarantine code; it is not the detective of soil salts, 

 the discoverer of varietal adaptations, the sleuth of pathologic troubles 

 in plant life, or the officer to bring to book the thousand secrets of 

 nature that perplex or impoverish the farmer. The office of State Com- 

 missioner of Horticulture is not the State schoolmaster of horticulture 

 charged with the duty of bringing back to the soil the escaping young 

 men, or of educating the rural people in the technical departments of 

 horticulture. These matters properly belong to the University. Rather 

 is the Commissioner 's office the statistician, the secretary of correspond- 

 ence with horticultural societies, colleges, and schools upon applied 

 knowledge, and, above all, the medium through which protection is 

 afforded to the orchards of the State, and pursuant of which this great 

 office is empowered to bring into businesslike cooperation the County 

 Horticultural Commissions in the enforcement of the laws designed for 

 the exclusion of insect pests and disease, their extermination or con- 

 trol, and in meeting any emergency that may threaten the fruit-grow- 

 ing enterprises of the State. To secure this cooperation the law has 

 made your State Commissioner member ex officio of every County 

 Board of Horticulture, and I shall try to fulfill this duty to the best 

 of my ability. 



Upon the policy of protecting from insect pests there is an idea extant 

 that the- new administration will be at variance with the old, especially 



