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reduce the profits and may seriously cripple what now promises to rank 

 with the most prominent industries of the State. Undoubtedly the greatest 

 threatened drawback to the success of the fruit interests of the State is the 

 prevalence of depredating insects on both tree and vine. 



Nearly every branch of industry is afflicted by injurious insects. Earth, 

 air, and the sea swarm with them. All crops throughout the country are 

 more or less injured by them, and many are entirely ruined by their dep- 

 redations. Cotton and tobacco in the South; potatoes and corn in the 

 West; and wheat and rye in the North, have often been rendered entirely 

 profitless by their devastation; but it is the fruit grower of California who 

 suffers most from the depredations of pests. The tree in the nursery, the 

 tree as it grows in the orchard, the fruit on the tree, and the fruit after it is 

 dried, is often infested with pestiferous insects. 



Our climate — so mild and equable — is wonderfully favorable to the prop- 

 agation and dissemination of insect pests. While almost every known 

 horticultural product of the world will grow and flourish in some part of 

 California, the pests that infests it, owing doubtless to the salubrity of the 

 climate, will also multiply and spread to an incalculable extent. Not only 

 have we to contend with almost every pest that is congenial to other climes, 

 but with some species that only exist to a considerable extent in this State. 



Many of our enterprising citizens who have imported trees, plants, and 

 scions from foreign countries are doubtless responsible for the introduction 

 and subsequent spread of some of our worst pests; but however it happened, 

 we know that the pests are here, and it looks as though their eradication 

 was going to be a difficult problem to solve. 



The orange growers of the southern part ot the State are unpleasantly 

 familiar with the cottony cushion scale, the peach and prune growers of 

 upper California have been forced into a reluctant acquaintance with the 

 pernicious scale, and the apple and pear growers are sorely troubled with 

 codlin moth and woolly aphis. The ravages of pests in this State alone 

 annually amounts to tens of thousands of dollars, and unless effective laws 

 are enacted by our Legislature and stringent measures adopted and fol- 

 lowed by ourselves, the loss will certainly increase at a fearful ratio. 



I am not prepared to say that the present laws on the subject are not 

 sufficient for the purpose designed, but if they are wanting in any essential 

 particular, they should be speedily amended and made to conform to the 

 necessities of the case. It does not seem to be so much the deficiency of 

 the laws applicable to the matter in hand, as the non-compliance with them 

 by interested parties. 



From the fact that pests spread from orchard to orchard, through some 

 process not well understood, thus rendering the thorough and scientific 

 spraying and disinfecting of one man useless, unless his neighbors adopt 

 the same course, the most stringent and binding methods should be adopted 

 and inflexibly pursued, to contest every inch of progress made or threatened 

 by pests. 



The inventive genius of the American people has placed in the hands of 

 the modern horticulturist adequate and efficient appliances for the destruc- 

 tion of these insidious enemies. The law has also wisely provided for an 

 officer, whose duty it is to examine orchards, experiment with the nature 

 and habits of insect pests; to ascertain, invent, and promulgate remedies 

 and outline the best methods of their application for the destruction of the 

 pests; to import known parasites if possible, and generally to assist in every 

 possible manner to attain the end desired. Such an officer now exists, and 

 is believed to be worthy and competent. He is doing his duty in a careful, 

 laborious, and painstaking manner. All else to be done remains with the 



