The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-07

most notable achievements even in
really scientific work have been ac-
complished by men who are compelled
to do their work without the author
ity of any university to call them
selves scientists This is not to be-
little the value of the orderly and 'sys-
tematic study of science as it is con-
Quoted in the schools. 1t is indis-
putable, and in those branches of sci
ence which can be carried on mainly
in the laboratory it is perhaps suffi-
cient. but whenever success depends on
that intimate personal knowledge of
phenomena which can come only from
continual personal contact with Nat
ure, the self-taught observer within his
usually limited field is worth more than
the entire staff of the Smithsonian In
stitution. such men would be wonder
fully helped by university training, but
unfortunately it very rarely happens
that to the right sort of a man there
comes the opportunity for ten years
continuous Study in the schools and
ten years continuous observation in the
fields. Life Is too short.
.PREDACEOUS INSECTS.
Possibly in no one thing connected
with horticulture has California so
greatly distinguished herself as in the
development of the art of fighting
bugs with bugs. It is distinctively
Californian art which is now finding its
way into other parts of the world, and
for it's discovery and development Can
ifornia deserves and demands the sole
credit. Lest our non-fruit-gr growing
readers may not realize the
Importance of this art, still in its
infancy, we may say, without
going into particulars, that the de-
struction of fruit by insect pests, not
ably the scale insects and the Goblin
moth, has literally cost the State mill
lions of dollars and is still the cause OF
the expenditure of hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars annually for spraying
and fumigation. BY sufficient thorough
work with sprays or fumigation most
insect pests can be kept somewhat in
check, but that is all. The only pests
which We have ever actually got rid
of are those which have been EXTERN
mated by their natural enemies They
have ceased to trouble us: The world
has only recently come to realize the
potency of the infinitely little in the
operations of life and begun to learn
the art-in this case wholly under the
leadership of laboratory scientists-of
setting good microbes to fight bad ones
as is done every day in well managed
creameries We do not know-that is,
the Chronicle does not know-whether
in these microbe fights the good mi
crobes devour their adversaries or only
exclude them by pre-empting the food
supplies, but in the California art of
fighting bugs with bugs the problem is
always to find an insect which does
not itself harm fruit, but gets its Nv
ing by devouring those which do. 1t
is not pretended that Californians dis
covered the balance of Nature" or
the means by which Nature maintains
that balance. That has been under
stood ever since mankind began to OBJ
serve and think. AS Dean Swift put
it;
So, naturalists observe, a flea
Has smaller heas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em,
And SO proceed ad infinitum.
And that exactly describes the pro-
cess. What Californians have done
is merely, in the exercise of ordinary
common sense, to put to practical
use well understood natural
process which scientific men have
known for ages and never thought of
THE THEORY OF THE WORK.
The theory is very simple No insect
is pest in its native land, because
when Nature originates a pest she in
variably invents parasite to keep it
in check. 1t continually happens, how
ever, that man in taking fruits and
plants from one part of the world to
another carries with it the pest without
the parasite. AS these low forms of
life multiply with inconceivable rapio-
lty when unchecked, the injury soon
becomes enormous. The problem then
is to discover the country of the origin
of the pest and go there and find the
parasite which keeps it down. Import
the parasite, breed it and turn it loose,
and the parasite does the rest With
plenty of natural food it thrfves might
~, until the pest disappears or ceases
to be of economic Importance.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ART.
The story of the development of this
art in California is very interesting
Twenty-Five years ago, more or less, one
of the wonders of Southern California
was the Wolfskin orange grove of 40
acres, of which some decaying stumps
may even yet be visible in vacant lots
in the city of Los Angeles. The ma1A-
ager of this orchard was Alexander
Craw. now and for many years past
quarantine officer of this
State. He might or might not have
got some smattering of entomology la
his school days. but he came to have
a most intimate and unfavorable
knowledge of some species of insects
from daily observation of their raw
ages in his orange trees.
The are of spraying was then in its
and fumigation with poison
Gus gases had not been thought of. The
pests were having their own way and
destroying the fruit and the trees.
Chief among these pests at that time
was the Icerya purchase, or cottony
cushion scale. This had been import