84 AGRICULTURE Of MAINE. 



INSPECTION OF FOREIGN NURSERY STOCK. 



Following out the plan adopted last year, this Bureau has co- 

 operated with the Federal Horticultural Board in the control of 

 plant pests and diseases. The inspection of nursery stock from 

 foreign lands is not compulsory, but for the sake of a check 

 on the inspection made in the foreign nurseries and also a check 

 on the permits to import foreign stock, we have considered it 

 a good practice to inspect the plants at the earliest convenience. 



While much of this work seems to be of little practical value, 

 one case at least shows the importance of the work. A ship- 

 ment of French seedlings to Mitchell Nursery Company in 

 Waterville was inspected March 5. On one of these seedlings 

 a winter nest was found. This nest resembled somewhat that 

 of the brown-tail caterpillars, but careful inspection by the Sta- 

 tion Entomologist, Miss Edith Patch, showed that it was not 

 a brown-tail nest. 



The nest with the little worms still in good condition, after 

 their long trip across the Atlantic, was sent to Washington. 

 Here Dr. Howard, the Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, was 

 unable to name the caterpillars. They were turned over to Dr. 

 Dyer who reared them to the last stage. He was then able to 

 identify them to be Aporia crataegi, a Pierid butterfly, common 

 in Europe. Writing of the Aporia crataegi, Kirby, in his book, 

 "European Butterflies and Moths," states that these moths fly 

 in May and July and he says, "They are common in Europe 

 and Western Asia. The larva is ashy gray, the head black with 

 two reddish-yellow stripes. It lives from autumn to May on 

 various fruit trees and is often very destructive to orchards 0.1 

 the Continent." 



This inspection alone may have saved us from a pest nearly, 

 if not quite, as serious as the brown-tail. 



Other inspections made during the year are as follows : 



