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



body ought to put a stop to it; there should be no such thing as a man 

 plowing up the natural waterways on the hillsides. They should have 

 a grass of some kind that would hold the soil, for a cover crop. 



In connection with this, I passed to-day, coming in. a plant that has 

 been sold for years by florists as alibeya. I noticed in Riverside they 

 had it between the sidewalks and the curbstone. It looked like white 

 clover. A friend called my attention to it in his yard and I said. ' ; Step 

 out here on the hillside and you will see it growing." Wherever the 

 land is moist enough that thing will hold your land, and you can get all 

 the pieces you want from several people here. There are thousands of 

 such things that are of interest, not only to orehardists, but to the 

 public generally. It is one side of the forestry subject. It is worth 

 while for every horticultural commissioner to be pretty well posted 

 in that. 



MR. COSTELLO. If I am in order I would like to finish my discus- 

 sion of the subject on which I started to speak. I think it is of great 

 interest to all of us, because I intend to take that examination myself, 

 and I was trying to tell the gentleman that I thought a horticultural 

 commissioner, after he had passed the examination, should devote his 

 whole time to that office. I don 't think he could very well sell goods or 

 keep books for a company and still be a good horticultural commissioner, 

 because I find that it takes all his time, and more, too, than he has 

 studying up those different fungicides that come. In northern San 

 Joaquin many people would say, "Why don't you let your inspectors 

 go? The thing is over; there is nothing more to do." Sure enough, 

 the battle is over, and when the battle is over they always put out a 

 sentry to keep guard to see that nothing comes in. When a commis- 

 sioner qualifies and just devotes a little bit of time to it there is nothing 

 more to it, because the people say, "Oh, he don't care; he is just draw- 

 ing his money and he is working selling beans down on the dock." 

 Maybe is out to the race track running races with his horses. So. you 

 must be a commissioner. If you are going to take that office, you must 

 make up your mind that you must tie yourself down. If you have got 

 the thousand dollars you can put it up yourself. But I haven 't got the 

 thousand dollars to put up. I have got to go to some of my friends and 

 they must put up a thousand dollars that I will come through. Suppose 

 I was down to Emeryville running horses; they would say. "That 

 fellow don 't know sic 'em ; he is just drawing his money. ' ' So it must 

 be that a commissioner must get right into the collar and get right 

 down to business. I have been at it about four months now studying 

 night and day, and it is a pretty stiff proposition to be a commissioner, 

 I. find, and I haven't got started yet. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. I would like to say one word of warning. 

 There is a lippia in the Sacramento Valley that is becoming one of the 

 worst weed pests in the valley. It is taking the pasture lands, crowd- 

 ing out other vegetation and the farmers are alarmed over the lippia, 

 not the Lippia repens, but there is another that is almost identical in 

 characteristics. We must remember that if our horticultural commis- 

 sioners do not stand between the people and these losses, there is going 

 to be an abandonment of thousands of acres of the best farming land 

 in the State, especially from the Johnson grass and the lippia and the 

 Russian thistle and the Napa thistle, particularly in counties Avhere 



