48 The Bulletin. 



Nursery Inspection.— The laws of Nortli Carolina require that all 

 nurseries in the State be inspected each year. The object of these^inspec- 

 tions is to ascertain the 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 nursery 

 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 nursery 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 ap- 

 parently 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 written or printed) of the State Entomologist, State Horti- 

 culturist, 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 can not be taken as a 

 guarantee that it is free, for the reasons which we have already ex- 

 plained. It may be that not one of the individual trees in the shipment 

 was actually inspected, 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 literally. 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 thing to de- 

 stroy 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 inspector 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 protection, though of course it is 

 not perfect. Despite the fact that the wording of the certificate can 

 not be relied on literally to the letter, it is perhaps best to have the 

 wording as it is, for a nurseryman will know that his nursery must 



