54 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



the red, purple, black and yellow scale, which, when present, seriously 

 injure and in time ruin our citrus groves. Thus, in many sections, 

 immunity from harm means great annual expense. Massachusetts, after 

 spending Avell toward a million dollars in combating the gipsy moth and 

 the brown-tail moth, has now done what California's experience might 

 have suggested at the start, imported their European enemies, and 

 already substantial progress is made in overcoming these two alarming 

 scourges. The devastation of the cotton boll weevil of the Southern 

 States was so threatening that large appropriations have been made by 

 Congress to secure effective remedies against it. We now have the 

 encouraging report that native parasitic and predaceous species have 

 come to the rescue, 'and are promising to be effective in staying the evil 

 wrought by this snout beetle. We should remember always that these 

 insect friends ''work for nothing and board themselves." We are 

 grateful for the discovery of such efficient remedies as gasing with 

 cyanide, but how much more grateful for the introduction of such 

 species as the Vedalia, for we are thus saved all anxiety as well as the 

 great expense and labor of fighting our pests. We must gas, unless our 

 friends are masters of the situation. To wait for the Scutellista, or 

 golden chalcid, until our groves are ruined, or materially injured, by the 

 black or yellow scale is the height of folly. The wise course would 

 seem to be to fight our pests by the best method, unless their enemies are 

 sufficient to keep them down : and in case we do not now have efficient 

 parasites or predaceous species, to hunt for them with the keenest vision 

 that we can secure. 



This brings me to the climax of the whole matter. We must listen to 

 the wise words of Prof. Vernon L. Kellogg spoken at the Marysville 

 meeting; we should have at once a State Entomologist. Think of it I 

 Despite all the losses, our gross returns from our orchards are something 

 like seventy-five million dollars. If, as good authority has it, twenty 

 per cent of this sum, or one fifth, is sacrificed through insect ravages, 

 then we see that our annual loss is from twelve to fifteen million dollars. 

 When we add to this the immense sum expended yearly in fighting our 

 foes, we have data that should induce immediate action. We can not 

 estimate the great benefit that has come through Harris, Fitch, Walsh, 

 and Riley, not to mention a host of other workers in this important 

 field. Millions would not measure the benefit to our country derived 

 from Riley's extensive researches, while State Entomologist of Missouri. 

 With so much at stake, we should see to it at once and insist that we have 

 the most competent man that we can procure, and equip him, as sug- 

 gested by Professor Kellogg, with assistants and means to travel and 

 investigate, and should pay a salary that would secure the ablest talent 

 to be found. This man should be free from the influenee of politics 

 and responsible only to the fruit growers. His whole time and energy 

 should be devoted to research in practical entomology. The professor 

 at the University has teaching that distracts, and our able entomologists, 

 now connected with the State Horticultural Commission, have duties in 

 relation to quarantine and breeding insects that disqualify them for 

 this huge work. It is a field that would take the entire time and tax 

 the energy to the utmost of the best man that can be secured. With the 

 right man. millions might — nay. would — be saved annually to our fruit 

 growers. When we consider our immense orchards, the enormous pro- 



