78 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



With this object in view the committee had prepared a bill, which was submitted to 

 several competent attorneys, besides those connected with the fruit quarantine and 

 inspection departments of the State Board of Horticulture, and after receiving their 

 approval, this bill was placed in the hands of Assemblyman Arnerich, and became 

 known as Assembly Bill No. 158. The committee made several trips to Sacramento, and 

 was successful in securing the passage of the bill through both houses of the Legislature. 



The committee desires to thank at this time the Hon. Alden Anderson, Speaker of 

 the Assembly, Mr. Ralph Hersey, Manager of the California Dried Fruit Agency of San 

 Jose\ Mr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary of the State Board of Horticulture, Mr. J. A. Filcher, 

 Manager of the State Board of Trade, and others, for their earnest cooperation and 

 assistance. 



We met our defeat at the hands of Governor Gage, for, when the bill which had been 

 passed by the Senate and Assembly reached the Governor late on February 24th. his 

 Excellency saw fit to promptly return it to the Assembly on the next morning, with 

 his disapproval. The last paragraph but one in Governor Gage's lengthy veto reads as . 

 follows: "Something on the lines of Assembly Bill No. 158 should receive careful 

 attention; and I trust that a law may be framed covering all its beneficial features, 

 without the radical objections herein mentioned, and that you may take the bill up and 

 act upon it as an urgency measure." 



The committee acted upon the Governor's suggestion and prepared a second bill, 

 which was so much like the first one that it was difficult to tell one from the other, with 

 the exception that the second bill, known as Assembly Bill No. 1003, provided that the 

 Governor should biennially appoint, etc., while the original bill, No. 158, provided that 

 the State Board of Horticulture should biennially appoint. This change in the bill 

 virtually made it an Executive measure, and it went sailing through the Assembly and 

 Senate as an urgency measure, and again reached the Governor two days after its 

 introduction, and in time for his official signature. But for reasons not necessary to 

 detail at this time the bill was never signed. Thus the labors of this committee and its 

 friends in behalf of the much needed legislation for the better protection of our fruit 

 industry were consigned to the Governor's waste-paper basket. 



The object sought through the labors of the committee was to prevent the shipping 

 of scaly and infected fruit out of the county where grown, and in this manner prevent 

 the transportation of insect pests from one part of the State to another, and at the 

 same time destroy the market for wormy, scaly fruit. This would naturally compel 

 growers with infested orchards to commence the cleaning-up process, and in time rid 

 their several orchards of scale and insect pests. 



It was the further intention to cause the inspection of each orchard in the State by 

 competent State officers, who would make and preserve official records of all orchards 

 inspected, and issue certificates to all owners of orchards found free from scale, and at 

 the same time furnish a full, complete report to the office of the State Board of Horti- 

 culture as to the condition of the various orchards, variety of scale and other insect 

 pests discovered by them. This record was to have been kept in such a form as to be 

 available for the use of buyers of fruit, both fresh and cured, for export purposes, and 

 reports would have been issued to the large exporting houses from time to time, 

 furnishing them with information whereby they could with safety buy fruit and export 

 it, knowing that upon its arrival in Germany, or elsewhere, it would not be held up as 

 scale-infected. By this method the trees in the orchard would have been inspected 

 instead of the fruit, as at first suggested, it being considered a much simpler and more 

 practicable way of arriving at the solution of the insect-pest problem ; for, if the trees in 

 the orchard are free from scale and insect pests, the fruit would certainly be sound and 

 perfect and free from scale, and buyers would take no chance in purchasing cured pears 

 or other fruits from such inspected orchards. 



This committee is of the opinion that the matter should be given careful considera- 

 tion by the members of this convention, and such action had as will bring about this 

 very desirable end. 



On motion, the report was received, and the thanks of the convention 

 tendered the committee. 



