Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-06-04
AGRICULTURAL.
MATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR
THE "REcoRC UNION"
Opposition to the Horticultural Laws and
Commissioners-The Tent Caterpillar
Scales on Ornamental Traes-Etc.

persons opposition to the horticultural laws
and the work of the horticultural officers.
Every step in the way of Improvements meets
opposition. The introduction OF the steel
pillow was opposed in its day for various rea-
sons. Some farmers maintained that the
friction between the soil and the metal CT the
plow destroyed the fertility Of the soil and
made the wheat rust Others claimed that
the soil did not do so well when turned over
as when merely stirred, as with the old
wooden pillow, and various were the preju-
iices and objections urged against the use of
the modern pillow, and it took nearly one
fourth of century to overcome these preju.
dices and objections and to bring The steel or
iron pillow into general use. The reaper and
mower and the thrashing- achine, also,
each had their opponents, some urg.
ing one reason and some another
Then there has ALWAYS been a
class of farmers who were prejudiced against
the introduction Of new and scientific ideas
from any source. AID more especially If these
ideas have been published ia books or papers.
Farmers with advanced idess and intelligent
practices ia the eyes of their less informed
neighbors have been in all ages and in all
countries Fidiculed as book-worns and as
impracticable theorists just in this cate-
CORY of opposition we should expect to find
the opponents Of the horticultural laws of
the last session of the Legislature and
of the men who are. endeavoring to enforce
them. The opposition TO these measures will
oppose all Efforts ct improvement from what
ever source or in whatever department of IL
dustry. Some of the opposition comes from
interested rnotives-froin sel6shness; but
some comes just from q natural disposition to
oppose all good causes and all good measures.
OF the former class, or salfsh motives, we
may instance the opposition of an or
chardist in a neighborirg county, who
wrote to a member of the Legislature
desiring him to oppose ths passage of the
laws referred to- and as reason stated that
the execution OF the law and the destruction
of the codling moth and other insects ipiuri-
GUS to fruit or fruit trees generally in the
State would be an injury to him. That he
had large orchard that was isolated from
other orchards ard az yet free from insects
and that ii all the insects in all the other
orchards Of the State were TO be DESTROYED
fruit would be SO plentiful that it would be
worth nothing in the market. We have
heard of smother man in Sonema county.
equally selfish in his opposition to the execu-
ton of the law and the destruction of the in
sects. He puts it more directly-if the
orchards of Sacramento and vicinity and San
Jose are freed from the destroying pests. the
fruit-growers of those localities viii glut the
market and We of Petaiuma can get nothing
for our fruit. Perhaps the Petaluma
Courier IS not ac.uated by any
thing like this selfish motive in pub
fishing The following. The Cou1-ie, saws ;
% An alvssorv boa-j 10Th &
horticulture, for all kinds of fruits, and such
as we had last year, for the purpose of inves-
tigation, experiment and the dissemination of
useful information, would be public benefit.
But the present new amended law. with its
State and County Vi.;cultural and Horticult-
ural Commissioners and Township Inspectors.
will prove an unnecessary and heavy expense
80 the already over-burdened taxpayers, and
an intolerable nuisance TO fruit growers. Ii
the people submit to this imposition quietly,
we shall soon have salarisd commissioners q nd
inspectors to look after the army worm. The
caterpillar, Hessian fly, tumble bugs. smut
and cheat in grain, and blight among the
potatoes, with power to burn off whole fields
when condemned by the inspectors. The
fact Is, that al the commissioners in the
world can't prevent the fruit tree and vine.
destroying pests from appearing and putting
In their work when the conditions of soil,
seasons, trees and vines are favorable to
them. Every remedy which science and ex-
perisnee have suggested for thsir prevention
and destruction has been tried by fruit
growers, and they viii continue their efforts
in this direction in the future without the
espionage OF petty Officials" Now. the facts
are that for the past six or eight years the
fruit-growers OF the State have been warned
time and again, by those who were informed
on the SUBJECT through tie press and by
private communication, that the codiing
moth and other pests were infesting their
orchards and spreading rapidly, and
that by the time these orchards had
become of the proper age to be of the great
est benefit and profit TO them, the worms
would have become SO thick and so de-
structive that they would ruin each year
their crop. We ourselves have written this
idea in one form or another and sent Il out
through the press Of the State probably a
thousand times Others have done the same,
and yet the whole matter was generally els.
regarded and quite commonly disbelieved
by the great mass of farmers and
fru;t-growers. until ruin of their or
chards, and of themselves financially,
was staring them in the face. Many orchards
were being dug up and burned for fire-wood,
and many others were being abandoned as of
no value, and the best fruit growing State in
the Union or the world was being practically
condemned for fruit culture because tie
worms were taking all the fruit. Il was with
Che greatest difficulty that the members Of
the Legislature could be induced to take
notice Of the matter, so Indifferent were they
and their constituents generally on the sub
iect, and it was only through peIsevering
eff orts of few intelligent fruit-growers and
public-spirited citizens that anything was
finally done. 1t is true that under the law
few officers have been appointed to see to its
execution. and they are in some cases to be
paid for their services out Of the public treas.
uries-State and courtyard in some cases
those who fail TO comply with their orders as
to the destruction OF insects in their orchards
are to pay them. But VIII not the
benefits, private and public, be greater
than the costs and inconyeniences
1t is estimated that the damage to the apple
and pear crop of the State by the codling
moth alone last year was but litsle if any less
than 80 per cent. OF the entire crop, and
probably exceeded half . million dollars.
That as things wire going on these crops
would be entirely destroyed. and million
dollars year would be lost to fruitgrowers
and the State within few years that insects
were ape .riug among the cherry trees, plum
and peach trees, with equally threatening
admonitions; that the orange scale was men
acing the grange and lemon crops, and that
scale insects were ruining the olive trees of
Santa Barbara, and that in fact, in tie
fruit line we had nothing safe in the future.
The laws were passed SO late in the season
that little can be done towards clearing out
the insects from all the small orchards for
want Of time to teach their owners what to
do to save them but the crops of the pro-
fessional olchardists viii generally be saved
this year, aud by another year the matter
will have been 50 much agitated, and in.or-
nation on the subject will have been
so well disseminated, that all classes will
know how to and will protect
themselves. Ii the people don't want to pay
the officials whose duty It is made to see that
the owners of fruit trees take care of them,
and destroy the insects that threaten the en-
tire fruit crop of the State, all they have to
do is to carry out the purposes of the law of
their own volition and the officers will have
nothing to do, and doing nothing will receive
no pay. The argument against the execution
of these necessary laws is the argument
of sloth and ignorance. It IS reg
ular Bourbon argument, snd not worthy
of the intelligence of the t1eoDie of Califor-