— 103 — 



the expense of sending Mr. Koebele to Australia the first time was met 

 by the Federal Government, through our friend Hon. Frank McCoppin. 

 The amount was $2,200. The State Board of Horticulture sent him a 

 few hundred dollars, as a voluntary assistance. 



On page 5 of the report on the Importation of Parasites and Preda- 

 ceous Insects, 1892, I find that this State appropriated $5,000 for the 

 purpose of sending Mr. Koebele a second time to Australia, and that 

 the General Government, through the Secretary of Agriculture, paid 

 his salary, while our State paid his incidentals. The amount actually 

 paid was $3,700; the rest was returned to the State. When we compare 

 this outlay with the $375,000 which Massachusetts has recently expended 

 for the extermination of a single injurious insect (the gypsy moth), it 

 is not to be mentioned. The whole cost to this State thus far has, 

 probably, not exceeded the amount which some individual orchardists 

 have spent for artificial remedies in one year. * * * 



I trust that the next Legislature will show that there has been a 

 decided improvement in the minds of the people, by appropriating a 

 sufficient amount to prosecute the work of importing beneficial insects. 

 It is true we have several that are doing excellent work. During the 

 past year I have noticed with pleasure the progress of not only the 

 Vedalia, the Rhizobius ventralis, and the Debelis, but the ten-spotted, the 

 red, the yellow, the gray, and the twice-stabbed ladybirds, the Orcus 

 australasia, and other valuable laborers. But we still need some for 

 the codlin moth, and some more for the woolly aphis and other pests, 

 and we shall be glad to have many for each pest, that we may make 

 success doubly sure against all disasters. 



A letter received last month from Mr. Koebele, who is now in Austra- 

 lia for the Hawaiian Government, states that he found no less than 

 twenty-four varieties of ladybirds in one orchard, and more than fifty 

 on that continent. We want them all. * * * 



Let this convention formulate some plan of action, and present a peti- 

 tion to the next Legislature that shall secure the desired assistance which 

 we so much need. Let harmony prevail in all the deliberations of these 

 sessions, and in all the efforts put forth in the interests of the orchardist 

 and the husbandman. So shall our storehouses be filled with the fruits 

 of the soil, and our barns shall burst with plenty. 



BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 



By J. F. McIntyre, of Fillmore. 



In times past men have noticed that insect pests apparently came and 

 went in cycles of time, and when a pest would disappear they would say 

 that it had run its course. It remained, however, for bright Californians 

 to discover that a bad insect pest was simply an insect that had in some 

 way become separated from its natural enemies and allowed to breed for 

 a time unmolested. If the pest is only separated a short distance by 

 land its enemy may soon overtake it and cut short its career; but when a 

 pest is moved across the ocean without its natural enemy, and becomes 

 established in a new country, which is frequently the case with scale 

 bugs, it is liable to do a vast amount of damage before some native pre- 



