THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CON\^NTIOX. 



151 



drain upon the income of the fruit groAver. The fruit grower is largely 

 responsible for such a condition existing in any county. He should 

 demand the protection to his orchard and locality to which the laAv 

 entitles him, by insisting that only the best men be appointed as horti- 

 cultural officials, and that they are furnished with the needed financi;)! 

 assistance by the supervisors .to properly carry on their work. 



There are various conditions that must be taken into consideration in 

 preventing the introduction of injurious- pests from other localities. 

 First, the nature of the .pest should be understood; its resistance to 

 remedies for its destruction should be known. Unless you are positively 

 sure that you can apply a remedy that Avill absolutely destroy it, you 

 had best take no chances in releasing it to the consignee: better to 

 burn it, and if necessary, have your county pay for it, than take chances 

 of allowing a pest to become established that may cost many thousands 

 of dollars to even control. As an illustration, we will name the purple 

 and red scale; either of these varieties^ are exceedingly resistant to 

 any known remedies for their eradication. Others might be named 

 equally as difficult to destroy. We know of no instance of either an 

 insect pest or plant disease ever having been eradicated after gaining 

 a foothold in any section. Perhaps the nearest approach to this has 

 been where we have been so fortunate as to find the true parasite or 

 insect enem}^ of some of our scale pests. The cottony cushion and San 

 Jose scale are perhaps the most notable examples of the absolute control 

 by parasitic enemies. Both of the above varieties of scale were at one 

 time classed as among our most destructive pests, as well as being 

 exceedingh^ resistant to artificial remedies for their eradication. With 

 all of our experience and improved methods, such as fumigation, spray- 

 ing, etc., we are only able to control the ravages of destructive insects 

 after becoming established in any locality. Any artificial remedy is 

 expensive, as it must be applied at regular intervals, owing to the 

 impossibility of destroying all of the insects at one application. 



We are opposed to placing unnecessary restrictions upon nurserymen 

 or others interested in the sale of trees, but w^e are unalterably opposed 

 to allowing pest infected or diseased trees brought into any locality. 

 No dealer in trees should have either a legal or uK^ral right to send 

 out nursery stock infested with destructive pests, and no purchaser 

 should have the privilege of planting out such stock to spread the 

 infection and become an expensive menace to the liorticiiltnrnl interests 

 of his locality. Upon this point there should be ni, clash betvreen 

 the honest tiurseryman and the horticultural official. The nurseryman 

 who is so unfortunate as to have diseased, or pest infected stock, should 

 have no right to visit his misfortune upon other localities. In our 

 experience, as horticultural officer. Ave have usually found those engaged 

 in the nursery business men of integrity. This is especially true of those 

 who are depending upon the business for a livelihood. It is the man 

 Avho is known as a tree broker, or the person engaged in the business 

 as a side issue, that Ave must bcAvare of. It is often true that blame 

 should attach to the intending purchaser cjuite as much as to the 

 nurseryman for the introduction of ncAv pests into a locality. This 

 is especially true of the ncAvcomer, who is perhaps absoluteh' ignorant 

 of the existence of injurious orchard pests. After securing his land, 



