The San Francisco call., 1898-07-23
VORMY FRUIT
 CONFISCATED Thirty-Five Boxes Cast
 Into the Bay. SHIPPERS WERE WARNED ACTION OF HORTICULTURAL QUARANTINE OFFICER. Damaging Work of the Codlin Moth and the Way It Affects Ship
 pers and Commission
 Men.

Quarantine Officer Alexander Craw of the State Board of Horticulture Is keep ing a sharp lookout and condemning all infested or wormy fruits received in ship ment for the local market. Yesterday he and his assistant, MT. Isaacs, chopped ur fifteen boxes of Bartlett pears and dumped them into the bay. The day pre- vious seizure of twenty-five boxes was made. and out of this lot all but five boxes were subjected to similar treat ment. These shipments were from up the Sacramento River.
 The quarantine and confiscation work is being done under rule VI of the State horticultural regulations, which prohibits the offering for sale, gift or distribution within the State, of any fruits found in- fested with any insect, or with any fungi blight or other diseases injurious to fruit or trees or plants.
 At the Fruit-growers' convention, as- sembled at Riverside, April 15 last. reso- lution was adopted, the preamble of which pointed out the shipment of wormy fruits to this and other cities as being detrimental to the interests of growers as lowering the price of good fruit and disseminating the codl1n moth afresh all over the State. It was recommended that the State Board of Horticulture take such steps as shall stop the transportation and exposure for sale of such infested fruit.
 The regulations, although being strictly inforced, are not being closely compiled Wlln.
 All the transportation companies and commission houses have been notified to warn their shippers that any infested fruit will be seized and quarantined, but it appears that such notification has been ignored in most instances, with the above result, and just now fruit Is coming in
 As a consequence of the Quarantine Of ficers execution of the law there Is liable to be a damage suit brought by l.. Sea- tena & Co.,, whose fifteen boxes of pears claims that the officers had no right to confiscate his personal property. The matter has been called to the attention of Attorney General Fitzgerald, and will be thoroughly investigated.
 Generally speaking, fruit is in better condition this season than for several years past. A few years ago fruit was very scaly, but where orehardists .han sa disin. M but about 2 per cent bad, where formerly the percentage stood at 32.
 Commenting on the two seizures, Guar antine Officer Craw saia: Sn We we do not no shippers learn that infested or wormy fruit will surely be confiscated or con- demned they will cease shipping fruit that ought to be fed to the hogs or manu- factured into vinegar. They can get no price for wormy fruit. Moreover, 1t af- fects the price of good, sound fruit, and ont tSiderS lose commence III the lOCal mar lSet Such fruit cannot be shipped to Ore gon and Washington, for the commission men there will not have it at any price, and shipment after shipment has been returned in the past. These same ship pers send their best fruits to the East. Orchardists could prevent. all this wormy fruit by caring properly for their trees. D
 The codlin moth, which has caused all the trouble was introduced in this State from the East in 1873, by grower. The fruit infested was exhibited at State fair, at a time when no one had a right to interfere The very next year the fruit in that section was infested, and this state of affairs reached Los Angeles trees three years later, through fruit sent there from up the Sacramento River. The cod lin moth deposits one egg on an apple or pear, as the case may be; the egg hatches