TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUTT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



97 



peach crop was almost annually completely destroyed by this insect 

 and this has been practically the case since 1866." 



This or a nearly related species was introduced into Western Australia 

 and has now become such a serious pest there that it is almost 

 impossible to raise any marketable fruit, even for home use, and the 

 Government has sent its entomologist, Mr. George Compere, a former 

 California]!, to the Mediterranean seaboard to look up the natural 

 enemies of a similar fly found there. Mr. Compere's instructions are 

 to find the enemy of the pest, even if he has to travel the world over. 

 He has had extensive correspondence with various countries and will 

 visit those that present evidence of the existence of some check to the 

 destructiveness of the fly. 



Queensland has a fruit-fly (Tephritis tryoni) that attacks all kinds of 

 deciduous fruits and is doing serious damage there. That pest is also 

 reported to have obtained a lodgment in New South Wales. The prin- 

 cipal seaport of that State is Sydney, with which we have direct steam- 

 ship connection and more or less danger of introducing the maggots in 

 fruit brought by passengers. This spring a shipment of 209 boxes of 

 fresh peaches, plums, and pears arrived on the steamship " Sierra," 

 which we immediately quarantined because of the danger of introducing 

 the maggot, as it is practically impossible to inspect and fumigate such 

 consignments and render them innocuous. The fruit was freshly picked 

 from the trees and soon thereafter placed in the refrigerator on board 

 the steamer, thus retarding the development of either eggs or small 

 maggots that escaped the notice of the packers, and made it equally 

 difficult to detect infestation on arrival here. A legal representative of 

 the shipper was present when the fruit was unloaded, and demanded 

 that an inspection of the fruit should be made in his presence, which I 

 positively refused to do, as in my judgment no inspection short of 

 cutting open each peach, plum, or pear could be made that would insure 

 the safety of California's fruit industry. Under Section 3, of our horti- 

 cultural quarantine law, it was necessary to find infestation in order to 

 commence action against the fruit as a nuisance. The matter was 

 urgent and my refusal to inspect the fruit would act against us should 

 it be taken into the courts. I determined to lay the matter before Mr. 

 Russ D. Stephens, the chairman of the Executive Committee of the 

 State Board of Horticulture, at Sacramento. We submitted the case 

 to Governor Pardee and Attorney-General U. S. Webb, and through 

 their advice an amendment to our horticultural quarantine law was 

 drawn up that would cover such a case. The Legislature was in session 

 at the time and the amended bill was immediately presented and 

 passed both houses without opposition, was signed by the Governor, 

 and now we can stop such imports from countries where such pests 

 exist. Before the bill became a law, however, that shipment, together 

 with the boxes, had gone up in smoke. 

 7 — F-GC 



