TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



79 



DANGEROUS PESTS QUARANTINED BY THE STATE BOARD 

 OF HORTICULTURE. 



" Stopped at the Threshold." 



Essay by ALEXANDER CRAW, State Horticultural Quarantine Officer. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : Of the steamers and sailing 

 vessels that arrived in the port of San Francisco from foreign countries 

 since my last report to the State Board of Horticulture, 122 had trees, 

 plants, or fruit. They were from China, Japan, Ceylon, Australia, New 

 Zealand, South Sea Islands, Philippine Islands, Hawaiian Islands, Cen- 

 tral America, and Mexican ports. Imports consisted of : 

 314 cases and crates of trees and plants. 

 573 boxes and bundles of trees and plants. 

 149 loose lots of trees and plants. 

 864 crates and sacks of pineapple plants for Florida. 

 10,809 boxes of limes. 

 3,054 boxes of Japanese Unshiu oranges. 



100 crates and 10 boxes of oranges from San Jose del Cuba. 

 2,360 boxes of mangoes, alligator pears, etc. 

 2,367 crates of pineapples. 



All fumigated with hydrocyanic acid gas. 

 3,302 fruit trees and ornamental plants were destroyed, as they were 

 infested with insects new to the State. 

 It is not necessary to enumerate the destructive insect pests that have 

 damaged the orchards and perplexed the orchardists of California, but 

 it is not generally known that nearly if not all of them are introduced 

 species. Less than three decades ago, the orchards and gardens of the 

 State were very free from insect pests; such an apparatus as a spray 

 pump was almost unknown; and a fumigating outfit had never been 

 heard of. The Spanish padres saw the possibilities of our soil and 

 climate for fruit culture, and experimented in a small way on lands 

 adjoining their Mission buildings. Their young plantations were nearly 

 all raised from seed, and were protected from the roaming herds of cattle 

 by hedges of opuntia, a species of tall-growing cactus, with flat spiny 

 leaves, bearing edible fruit, known as prickly pears, which were much 

 relished by the Indians of the southern counties. Some of the Missions 

 had more pretentious barricades for the protection of their trees and vines 

 in well-built adobe walls. These orchards were thrifty and clean. Some 

 of the more enterprising pioneers who came to California before the 

 u days of gold" planted trees as a business proposition, and these, like 

 the Mission trees, were nearly all seedlings or propagated from the 

 Mission trees. 



