Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-20
AGRICULTURAL.
MArTHR PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR
THE "REcoRD UNION"
Horticultural Education-where our Sheep
are Geing-wheat and Betf-Rarly
Rafns-Etc.

We have frequently been asked why the
County Horticultural Commissioners that
have been appointed by the Supervisors IL
several of the most prominent frult-groWing
counties have not been more active in the
performance of the duties imposed upon
them by the law to protect the horticultural
interests. 1t was charged by some persons
and some newspapers opposed to the law
and its policy that the object WIS to
make places snd salaried offices for
politicians rather than practically 20 ex-
terminate the insect pests from the orchards
Now. as positive answer to this charge,
and at the same time in answer to the ques-
zion above indicated, it may be stated that
nearly if notquite all the persons appointed
.as County Horticultural Commissioners are
practical orchardists, and not politicians
and that, being such, they have desired not
to put Their counties to expense, or to draw
apy money from the county treasures with
out rendering to the public CORE
spending benefit or returning an equivalent.
Work against the insect pests in the or
chards, &c be elective, should begin with the
season, and before the insects have done their
damageseor the year. For instance, the cod
ling moth during the winter or rainy season
in this State is in dormant state in the form
of a chrysalis. and is to be found secreted
under the loose scales of bark of the stems or
bodies of the trees In the cracks and crevices
about the base of the branches, and IN the
soil under the trees, particularly about the
roots and base Of the bodies. During the
winter season therefore is the time for
the Commissioners to visit the orchards in
their several districts, not for the purpose OF
destroying the insects, but to teach the own
ers of the orchards how to destroy them
themselves The first duty of the Commas
sioners is to act in the capacity OF practical
horticultural teachers-to instruct the or
.chardists in the habits of the insects with
which their orchards are infested; to show
them the insect itself, by putting off the
loose bark and opening the nest or
cocoon in which the chryesis is Sc
.creted-by uncoveriDg the hiding places
in the soil, and pointing out the nests then
showing how they can be destroyed by
.scraping the loose bark from the body of the
tree and trimming 1t, or burying it so deep
thai the moth or insect cannot make its way
to the surface, or by blowing up and working
the soil under and about the trees in the Or
chard, and thus exposing the insect to the
weather and destruction in this way. The
Commissioners are not to act ID any sense as
the enemies of horticulturists, but rather as
friends and advisers in the contest with their
enemies, the insecss. As these Commission
ers were appointed so late last fall that it
was impossible to accomplish much in the
way of determination of the pests this season,
it was tacitly agreed among them that it
would be better to delay the performance Of
their duties in the field TIL the coming winter,
when active work will begin throughout all
the fruit-growing districts Of the State. In
the mean time the education 10 practical en-
tomology will go on by discussions at horti-
cultural meetings, and in the press, by the
distribution of the manual being prepared
by the chief horticultural officer, and
by the exhibitions and lectures on
the insects by the same officer at
the agricultural fairs, and in other ways. So
that while effective work is progressing I'M
der the law and in the direction contem-
plated by the real authors and friends of the
same, no expense bills are bsing made against
the counties. We have therefore answered
the question propounded, and at the same
time shown that the objections made to the
law by those who opposed it's passage are un-
founded