Organised Work Against Insects.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 79, 11 April 1885, Page 4

Organised Work Against Insects.

I com si km) the following extract from a Colifornian paper to the attention of fruitgrowers :—" The Orange Bug Association met on Saturday last. A petition to tho Board of Supervisors was read and adopted. It is as follows : ' To tho Honourable Board of Supervisors of Los Angolos County.Cal. : We, tho undersigned citizens of Los Aiigelos County, Cal., do petition your honourable body to pass an ordinance in accordance with the law made and provided for the extermination of insect pests injurious to fruit trees and other insect life. We ask for a division of the county into suitable districts, and tho appointment of inspectors therein, whose compensation shall bo provided for by the county, and whoso duty shall bo to thoroughly inspect all orchards, nurseries, hedges, and vineyards in thoir respective districts monthly, during the following months, to wit, comuioncing in June and continuing through July, August, September, October, and November, for all the varieties of scale insect, the codlin moth and woolly aphis, and wherever found report the samo to the owner or occupant thereof, and prescribe a course of treatment for tho abatement and ultimate destruction of such pests ; and upon the second in.petition of any orchard, nursery, hedge, or vineyard, wherein tho said inspector shall find that such prescribed course has not been fully complied with, or some other course pursued, which, in the inspector's opinion, has been fully as efficacious in destroying said insect pests, the owner or occupant thereof shall bo liablo and subject to a fino of 810, and upon o\'ery subsequent neglect to comply with such proscription of said inspector, or failure to effectually destroy said insect pests in somo other manner, to a fino of £20 We also usk that it shall bo tho duty of said inspectors to immediately prosocuto any and all porsons who fail to comply with tho requirements of this ordinance, and colloct said tines by duo course of tho law, and pay tho samo to tho County Treasurer ; and wo ask that tho District Attorney bo instructed to assist in and conduct such prosecutions. And wo furthermore ask that- tho prescriptions and insecticides of said inspectors shall bo in accordonoo with tho advice of the State Horticultural Inspector." A committee of threo was appointed to circulate it for eignora. Persons interested in fruit-growing in Now Zealand should form a somewhat similar association, so that they muy adviso tho Governmont upon the best stops to tako for tho extirpation of those pests. With hotter knowledge wo should never havo witnossed tho farce of throwing fruit into the intake to deßtroy tho codlin moth. Any person who knows anything of the habits of tho codlin moth would knowthat if tho wholo of such fruit had boon Bcarchod not a single insect would have beon found in it. Theso cocoons might havo boen discovered in tho cases the fruit had beon pickod in j or if tho fruit in America had beon piled up underneath tho trees for a week or so boforo being Kickod for hero evory insect would have ft tho fruit to sock some less perishable material to build the cocoon anil rest tor tbo winter. If fruit is to pay the Americans by importing it here they must be taught that '*only sound fruit can find a market. Infected fruit at ono timo used to bo exported from America to Britain. That ceased, as they found that in was almost worthless in the markets. Hero our fruit dealers should refuse the infected shipments, and American shippers would soon have all the unsound fruit picked out before shipping here. At somo other time I will deal with this subject at moro length. English Horticultural Catalogues.

Many people in the colonies, in speaking of plants, refer to magnificent specimens shown in catalogues. The following extract from a letter written to the editor of the " Garden," London, shows how some of theso spocimons are got up:—"lt is said that even the humble worm will turn again if trodden upon too often. There cannot be a more humble and inoffensive individual than the horticultural artist. I, alas I am' one. I have no pretentions to independence of thought or hand. lam a mere nurseryman's drudge. lam not benefitted when I portray a dingy dwarf as a gorgeous giant; I morely do what my kind employer tells me. He pays me my humble pittanco, rubs my name off my work, and publishes my picture. Sir, lam so well acquainted with nurserymen's requirements that I have in constant use a nurseryman's proportionable compass (devised by myself). There is a moveable screw in tho middle, so that one end may be made to open twice, thrice, four, or even five or six timeß more than the other. If I have a plant from Mr Swagga, I move the screw to Air Swaggs's mark, and I measure with tho small end and draw with the big one. If Air Pelter sends me a plant, I move the screw to Mr Pelter's mark, and I always give satisfaction. I call my compass a horticultural floremeter. When young I did not like those exaggerations, and I trembled for my reputation and honesty, but my chief nurseryman told me it was all right, as he always rubbed the artist's name off. I was also not long in learning that nurserymen not only hold the poor draughtsmen in slavery, but thoy had tho publishers as well. For instance, Mr Topper writes to his publisher; ' Dear Mr Sycophant, if you will send your artist to paint my new magnificent mimnlus, I will tako 500 copies of your monthly magazine.' When the submissive artist goes to the rich nurseryman, he is told that all the best mimulus have gone off, that a few poor blooms are left, but they are not one-quarter the size of those just gone off. If the inoffensive artist will draw these small flowers exactly four times the size of nature, they will represent the missing blooms. Should the poor drudge remonstrate, a threat is held out that tho 500 copies will be cancelled, and Mr Sychopant, the publisher, will come down on the draughtsman like a thousand of bricks. Well, sir, I made a mistake once, and I did entirely enjoy it (behind my employer's back). There was a plant race—two nurserymen were each madly eager to get a plant out first. Mr Swiggers sent the blooms on to mo by post in hot haate, with a request that J should get his out f at all risk, and aa extra fee would be I

my reward. Sir, I got out my compass (Mr Swiggers stretches more than any other man); I polished the plant off like lightning, and got it out first. On the day of its publication, I received a lettor from Mr Swiggers's undersecretary, summoning me immediately to the plant emporium. Of course I werrt, instantly. Mr Swiggers was there with dilated eyes, hair on end, and his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth, speechless. At last he said, "Oh I Mr Staggers, I tremble under the blow you havo put upon me. The plant, my young man, was a dwarf varioty, and ought to havo been shrunk in size at least three times, whereas you have enlarged it with your peculiar compass six times. lam ruined 1 lam ruined ! You artists aro a bad lot; you have no sense." Mr Staggers took good "caro nover again to employ the inofiensivo

"SWIGGMIS."