48 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



the examination, if you are intending to do so, and if you are not 

 intending I hope I may say something that will induce you to take this 

 examination in your county. 



There is a reason for the committee who framed this law putting in 

 the clause that there should be an examination that would be a test of 

 the qualification of the men who wished to be prospective commissioners 

 of the counties. I believe that the reason for the qualification clause 

 lies in the commissioners, perhaps, themselves. We know that there 

 have been cases in California where men who have been appointed by 

 the sanction of the growers, perhaps, where they were permitted to 

 present only a very small bill to the board of supervisors, were only 

 allowed to spend a little time, a very few days in each month, perhaps 

 were often asked not to present a bill at all, or were appointed under a 

 guarantee to the board of supervisors that they would not present any 

 bills as horticultural commissioners. Other cases have arisen where 

 commissioners were unqualified. I recall a case where there was a 

 public assemblage and a commissioner of that section was present and. 

 wishing to impress the audience with his knowledge, he reached up on 

 the wall and pulled down a large crane fly. This fly looks like a great 

 big daddy-long-legs with wings. He dangled it in the air and said. 

 1 1 That is the thing that makes the Hessian fly, ' ' and he threw it on the 

 floor. Now. of course, the Hessian fly is a very minute fly. A man who 

 does not know the difference between a Hessian fly and a big crane fly 

 would not make a good commissioner, and it was with this idea in view 

 that this examining board have drawn up questions and presented them 

 to the applicants, to draw out whether they are. by their occupation, 

 by their study, by their experience, qualified to not only examine 

 incoming nursery stock in regard to its cleanliness, its freedom from 

 diseases, but also to advise growers intelligently as to the planting and 

 care of their orchards and vineyards. The men who passed this exami- 

 nation prove that the examination is practical, and I think in saying 

 this I am complimenting the Board of Horticultural Examiners, and 

 in complimenting them I am certainly complimenting Mr. Carnes. who 

 is most responsible, I understand, for the questions formulated. When 

 you have considered the matter I think you will agree that the exami- 

 nation is practical, for in Los Angeles County eight men took the 

 examination and five passed. Of the five who passed four of them were 

 either commissioners or ex-commissioners and the other an inspector. 

 In San Bernardino County the man who passed the examination was an 

 ex-commissioner ; the man in Riverside County was an ex-commissioner. 

 I might say. also, that I do not believe that any of these commissioners 

 who passed this examination had ever been to any agricultural college 

 and taken a special course in pomology. They proved, however, that 

 they had been keeping pace with the times, that they had been taking 

 horticultural bulletins from the State University, from our own institu- 

 tion, and from the government, and that they had been studying these 

 things ; that they were up in the practical knowledge and in the tech- 

 nical knowledge that fitted them for commissioners, and I think it is 

 a compliment to the commissioners of California when we see that these 

 men have been reappointed to their positions. This should be a stimulus 

 to the commissioners who have not yet taken the examinations in their 

 counties, to rub up a little bit and take these examinations ; for I believe 



