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



in the search for and use of beneficial insects. Statements have been 

 made that, if true, should disqualify me from holding my present 

 position, and as far as I know the belief in these statements is the only 

 bar to my acceptability as your Commissioner. I would not refer to 

 this personal matter if it did not touch so closely the work of this office. 

 And then you have the right to know my attitude upon a question so 

 paramount to the success of fruit-growing. A circular was sent all 

 over the State last summer in which, with other remarkable matter, 

 the statement was made that my candidacy was a direct challenge to 

 Mr. Cooper's policy of using parasitic insects in the control of orchard 

 pests. The charge needed no denial in the south, and it is useless to 

 deny anything in the warmth of a contest of this kind. I think it is 

 proper now, however, to suggest that the authors of this circular de- 

 pended entirely upon their imagination for their facts, for my f ith 

 in the efficacy of parasitic and predaceous insects is now, and always 

 has been, as firmly grounded as that of any other individual's in the 

 State. The gentlemen who have erred in this matter are known for 

 their honorable membership of this Convention, and for their loyalty 

 to the fruit interests of the coast, and I know it will be a pleasureior 

 them to discover their mistake, and to continue to support the office 

 with which their work has been so long and faithfully identified, 

 believe, however, that some of us have lost the sense of proportions 

 between the so>-called natural and the artificial methods of fighting 

 insect pests, and I hold that these proportions may be equalized in the 

 public mind without abating in any degree the search for new insect 

 friends or relaxing in the nurture and distribution of our native bene- 

 ficial species. I know by experience how easy it is to exaggerate the 

 achievements of parasitic insects. Four years ago, when the Scutel- 

 lista seemed to have the black scale at its mercy in the south, the Los 

 Angeles office led the procession in boasting of the triumphs of the little 

 fly; and I was in the front rank of the boasters. Many of our people 

 joined in the noise we made over the work of the fly, some doubted, s id 

 one friend felt it his duty to remonstrate with us for making such 

 travagant claims. He said our office reminded him of Lincoln's Mis- 

 sissippi steamboat. Lincoln said he went up-river one time on a boat 

 which had a whistle so much bigger than its boiler that they had to 

 .stop and tie up to a stump every time the pilot wanted to blow for the 

 nexl landing. I hope to carry this lesson through the four years of my 

 administration. Within the next three months we hope to have the 

 [nsectary built. Time will prove this institution one of great va 1 e,y 

 lis successful operation will be in line with my predecessor's, n. 

 cherished policy, and I propose, when the Insectary is finished^ 

 have placed in its entablature this inscription, "Founded by Ellw, 



