The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-03-15
PROTECTING ORANGES FROM PESTS

California Is in line with Hawaii in
trying to keep out insect pests. The
following from the San Francisco
Chronicle shows how our neighbor is
| protecting itself from an orange de-
| stroyer:
THE Mexican orange worm is the
| product of a fly which punctures the
| skin of the orange and deposits It's
eggs. These in a few days develop the
larvae which are known as the Mexi-
can or Morales orange worm. In de-
posting the eggs the fly leaves no mark
which is visible to the ordinary OBJ
server. The infected fruit looks pre-
cisely like that which is pest free, and
the consumer does not know that he
| has got a wormy orange until he peels
| 1t and finds 1t full of maggots. No
disinfection of the fruit is possible, and
since it cannot be disinfected or the
wormy fruit detected by inspection, the
importation of oranges from Mexico
into this State is absolutely prohibited
by the laws of California. The rail-
road and steamship companies will not
bring them in, nor will they bring cars
here until disinfected which have been
used to take Mexican oranges into other
''"''S "hNie iiiaSSolo ult opJVI-
tionable. The State quarantine officer
boards every vessel arriving at the
port and closely examines all fruits and
plants. If he finds any oranges ON
ships arriving from Mexico in passen-
gers baggage they are promptly put
into the ships furnaces. 1t is GRIM
nal offense to bring oranges from Mex
leo into this State, and it is one of our
laws which is rigdly enforced. New
ertheless, Quarantine Officer Craw says
that some day some fool passengers
gripsack will escape his vigilance and
the fly be set free in our State to ruin
our crop. Thus far he has kept the
pest out.
This being the condition of the mat
ter, 1t is nothing less than unparalleled
hlpudence for the Mexican Government
to appeal to the Federal authorities to
procure the abrogation of our state
quarantine laws so that their wormy
oranges can come in. Mexican oran-
ges Iipen earlier than ours, and for a
few weeks just preceding the time
when our oranges ripen they could
ship their fruit here at n profit. The
Mexican ambassador has appealed to
Secretary Hay, who has referred the
protest to the Secretary of Agriculture,
who has passed 1t on to Governor Par
dee, who, in connection with the State
Commissioner of Horticulture, will
doubtless make a respectful but firm
reply There Is no doubt, we believe,
of the validity of the law in the alb
sence of general legislation by Con-
gress. The wormy oranges will not
get in, no matter what our State De-
partment may wish, and we have no
reason to suppose that Secretary Hay
wishes to force a dreadful fruit pest
upon this state. The Secretary of Ag-
riculture will certainly be with us. |
Nevertheless, all Secretaries of state |
like to keep on good terms with neigh
boring countries and usually know very J
little about fruit pests. II is entirely |
possible for Mexico to hold the United |
States responsible for the acts of this |
State and to discriminate against some !
of our products in retaliation. This |
would rouse at once those concerned |
with the industries injured to demand |
of Congress some general legislation |
which would supersede our State law |
and let the maggoty oranges into Cali |
fornia. There Is no immediate danger, |
but We must always be prepared for a
fight"