by the present administration should share in the responsibility. The Commission can only suggest what seems to it to give the greatest amount of safety to the Arizona farmer, and leave the final word to be said by the incoming Legislature.	--
Therefore, in addition to-the amount asked for To carry on the work for the biennium beginning July 1st, 1921, the Commission also asks for twenty-five hundred ($2,500.00) dollars to reimburse the cotton growers for the amount advanced by them to complete the work for the year ending June 30th, 1920, and thirty-two thousand ($32,000.00) dollars to complete the work for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1921.
As already mentioned, there is a form of boll weevil which preys upon the thurberia, or so-called wild cotton, in the Catalina, Rincon, and other mountains of Arizona, which is almost identical to the cotton boll weevil of the South. If brought in contact with domesticated cotton fields this weevil can acquire the habits of the regular cotton boll weevil. In fact, in two fields in the Tucson district such adaptation has taken place, and plans are now under way to harvest the crop in the region of the mountains, which will prevent the carrying of insects to other districts, and further, to burn the cotton plants, plow and irrigate the soil. The thurberia weevil will always be a menace to the cotton crop of Arizona. It is by reason of the menace of the thurberia weevil, the cotton boll weevil, the pink boll worm, and the alfalfa weevil, that the Commission has been led to ask that the Legislature appropriate an emergency fund for the next biennium of fifty thousand ($50,000.00) dollars for each year, to be used in case an insect or disease infestation should appear, which menace could not be effectively combatted through the use of the regular appropriation.
It is, of course, the Commission’s idea and desire that such an emergency fund be used only in case the necessity arises to combat a dangerous infestation of crop pests, and that the fund remain untouched save as such necessity makes its expenditure imperative. Such portion of the fund remaining unexpended at the close of the fiscal year would revert to the State Treasury, and not to be^ an addition to the funds appropriated for the regular work of this Commission.
Enclosed you will find statement of money spent for the first quarter of the present fiscal year.
Respectfully submitted,
ARIZONA COMMISSION OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE
G. W. HUDSON/
Chairman.
W. H. ROBINSON,
Secretary.
Commission hopes to be able to greatly perfect its service to the agriculturists and horticulturists of the State.
In order to make as small demands as possible upon the funds of the State, the Commission, through the State Entomologist, has spared no. effort to secure the aid and closest co-operation from and with the U. S. Federal Horticultural Board in carrying out quarantine measures.
One very serious menace to the State’s agricultural interests lies in the fact that freight cars entering its borders make an ideal carrier for many varieties of dangerous insects. For example, fifteen per cent of all cars entering Arizona carry sweepings of cotton seed and other cotton products that might carry cotton boll weevil and pink boll worm. Other cars containing litter make an ideal carrier for alfalfa weevil.
An effort is now being made by the Commission to have the Federal authorities insist that the railroad companies be required to clean all cars that might carry dangerous insects into the State, and also to establish fumigating plants at Nogales and other points, wherein immigrants’ movables and other commodities that might harbor insects destined for Arizona points might be fumigated.
While it is hoped that the Federal authorities may be induced to establish these plants entirely at their own expense, it is not unlikely that they may ask assistance from the State of Arizona to help meet the cost, which it is estimated might be any amount up to fifty thousand dollars.
The necessity for a more adequate form of inspection was pressed home upon the Commission this last summer, when it was seen that in order to give the cotton industry the protection that that important crop demanded, a more comprehensive system of quarantine and inspection should be installed at once. It can readily be seen that a quarantine is like a fence, and a fence with gaps in it is no better than no fence at all.
For this reason the Commission put in operation the enlarged system of inspection mentioned above in the early part of this past summer. The cost of this service overran the appropriation for the past fiscal year twenty-five hundred dollars, which was advanced by the cotton growers of the State in the expectation that the coming Legislature would reimburse them for the money spent.
During the first quarter of the present fiscal year the Commission has spent $17,981.20. To carry the work up to the end of the second quarter (December 31, 1920) will very nearly exhaust the entire appropriation for the present fiscal year. To carry on the work to June 30th next according to the program now established will take not less than $32,000.00 more, based upon what has been spent so far this year.
In all this the Commission feels that the people of Arizona represented