PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 173 



One of the accidental discoveries made in the use of this double dosage 

 late in the season (from January 15th to the middle of the bloom 

 period) was that excessive crops of high-grade fruit followed upon 

 each of the scattered groups treated, while in many cases the untreated 

 trees adjoining these groups bore that year extremely light crops, and 

 this occurred in so many orchards as to seem to prove that the excessive 

 crops were due to the stimulus given to the trees by the fumigation 

 during the critical fruit-setting period. 



The time now seems ripe for a general supervision of all jobs of 

 fumigation done in each county by the Horticultural Board of such 

 county, whether the work is done by private contractors or otherwise, 

 and to this end all Horticultural Inspectors, as well as Commissioners, 

 should make themselves familiar with all the details of the process, and 

 especially with the scheduling of the trees, so that they may regulate 

 the amount of dosage used, and thus safeguard the interests of the 

 fruit-growers in whose service they are employed. The orchardists 

 should be prevented from inviting poor work by exacting too low a 

 price from the contractor, and on the other hand, any unscrupulous or 

 ignorant fumigator should be prohibited by the Commissioners from 

 using too small an amount of chemicals, or too short a period of ex- 

 posure to the treatment to insure the best of killing results. I believe 

 this regulation of a practice which costs the fruit-growers hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars per year to be well within the province of our 

 Horticultural Commission, and that ample authority is vested in such 

 Board by our present laws. 



C. E. Bemis. 



A recess was here taken until 7 :30 o 'clock p. m. 



EVENING SESSION-THIRD DAY. 



Thursday, December 5, 1907. 

 Owing to delay in .the return of the excursionists, the meeting was 

 not called to order until 8 o'clock p. m. 

 Commissioner Jeffrey in the chair. 



THE CHAIRMAN. While we are waiting on the audience to assem- 

 ble — and we can not proceed very well until they get settled down — I 

 will ask Mr. Filcher to make a five-minute talk on the Alaska- Yukon 

 Exposition. Mr. Filcher is too well known in California to need an 

 introduction from any one. 



