The Bulletin. 55 



tions is to ascertain tlie condition of the nurseries with regard to certain 

 serious insect pests and plant diseases, and to prevent, so far as may be 

 practicable, the sale of infested trees. The actual work of inspection is 

 done by the Entomologist or his assistants. 



San Jose Scale. — The one pest above all others which the nurseiy 

 inspections are intended to control is the San Jose Scale, a small, incon-. 

 spicuous insect which does great damage when it becomes established in 

 orchards. If a tree is infested with this insect at the time it comes from 

 the nursery, it may show no signs of decline then, but it will usually die 

 in from one to four years, and during that time the insect is likely to 

 become established on neighboring trees. As the San Jose Scale is not 

 easily observed until the trees have become badly infested, it can be 

 readily seen that every precaution should be taken that infested trees 

 shall not be sent out from the nurseries, and the grower himself should 

 exercise every care to see that infested trees are not sent to him. 



Certificate Should Accompany Every Delivery. — Every delivery of nurs- 

 ery stock sent to any purchaser in this State is required by law to be 

 accompanied by a certificate of inspection, which states that the nursery 

 from which the stock was sent has been inspected and is apparently free 

 from the San Jose Scale, or other dangerous pests. The wording of the 

 certificate is usually printed on a card or shipping tag and attached to 

 the box or bundle. And the certificate must bear the name (either writ- 

 ten or printed) of the State Entomologist, State Horticulturist, State 

 Nursery Inspector or other duly qualified officer of the State, or State 

 Experiment Station, where the nursery is located. 



Requirements for Certification. — While the certificates issued in all the 

 States indicate that the nursery is "apparently free from San Jose 

 Scale," etc. (or words to that effect), this cannot be taken as a guarantee 

 that it is free, for the reasons which we have already explained. It may 

 be that not one of the individual trees in the shipment was actually in- 

 spected, as the most that the inspector can do is to go into all parts of 

 the nursery and inspect occasional trees or groups of trees. And the 

 statement that the nursery "is apparently free" is not to be taken liter- 

 ally. So far as we know, there is not a single eastern State in which 

 real close inspections are actually made which carries out to the letter 

 the idea implied in that statement. If only one or two, or a few scale- 

 infested trees are found, it is a usual tiling to destroy those trees, closely 

 inspect all around them, and if no more scale is found, the certificate is 

 issued. In some States a further precaution is taken, in that the inspec- 

 tor or his agent personally does the work of fumigating (explained later) 

 the stock when it is dug. In some cases, where the nursery is not too 

 large, and the infestation is quite bad, arrangements are made to have 

 the inspector or his agents inspect every individual tree when the stock 

 is dug. By these various means the purchaser receives considerable pro- 



