The blessing of bountiful crops in the Sacramento Valley was sometimes offset by the pests that proliferated and grew in number as the acreage planted expanded. In 1881 the California legislature created an advisory Board of Horticulture as well as the County Horticulture Commissioner "to eradicate bugs, codlin moths, or other insects that are destructive to trees." In 1883 the commissioners received "general powers in the control of pests and to make regulations for the destruction of gophers, squirrels, and other animals, noxious weeds, and insects injurious to fruit trees, vines, vegetables, or the pear blight."
