103 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of crossing tbem, luake their way around the northern extremity, along 

 the soutli shore of lake Erie. This causes them to push their way into the 

 Mississippi basin by the way of extreme northeastern Ohio. The aspar- 

 agus beetle, Crioceris asparagi, has seemingly just passed through this 

 gateway, and is begiuuing to spread out to the south and west. At pres- 

 ent it covers a comparatively limited area, and if properly handled could 

 be stamped out and kept out. But I am powerless to do anything myself, 

 as all m}'^ time is required to carry on the work necessary to my depart- 

 ment, such as replying to correspondents, looking after more destructive 

 and more widely disseminated pests, etc., and assistance is positively 

 denied me. States, individually, will do nothing. The only really ser- 

 ious attempt that is being made in this direction is in Massachusetts, 

 where the gipsy moth, Ocneria dispar, is being fought by the state exclu- 

 sively — and let me add successfully; but we have the discouraging specta- 

 cle of not only the general government but all of the state governments 

 looking languidly on with the disinterestedness that amounts well-nigh 

 to total indifference. You let this pest once escape from within the bound- 

 aries of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and millions of dollars will 

 not cover the losses it will occasion. I have personally investigated this 

 matter within the last few months, and speak to you from personal obser- 

 vation regarding it. 



Many of you are probably familiar with the way by which the San Jose 

 scale, Aspkliosiis pcrniciosns, was introduced from California into eastern 

 nurseries, and from these scattered broadcast over the land. Though 

 these nurseries unAvittingly received the pest, I have ample proof that 

 some of them sent it out to their customers as late as last spring, when 

 they could not help knowing what they were doing, and there was not a 

 shade of an excuse for their acts. What has occurred is likely to occur 

 again under similar conditions. It is said of the sultan of Turkey, that 

 he respects nothing but an ultimatum, and some nurserymen respect 

 nothing that does not threaten their business. Some men obey the law 

 out of respect for it, others wholly through fear of retribution. 



This is the situation in which growers of fruit trees, as well as vege- 

 table growers, are placed, with little prospect of an improved condition 

 of affairs; for, just in proportion to the effort made to improve our fruits 

 by seenring foreign stocks, and the time required for transporting them 

 from their native homes to this country is reduced, do you increase the 

 probability of adding to the number of these pests, every one of which 

 renders your business more expensive and the profits thereof more uncer- 

 tain. 



What can you do? For my own part, I have little faith in state laws. 

 Under many foreign governments, laws are made to be enforced, but in 

 ours many of them appear to have been made to be broken. In Ohio we 

 have laws regarding the destruction of the Canada thistle and black 

 knot, but they are void over a large portion of the state because they are 

 not enforced. I have been told again and again by enterprising, public- 

 sjurited men, that tliey kept botli of these pests off their premises but 

 preferred to say nothing about the condition of their neighbors' grounds 

 because of the trouble and annoyance in which they would be sure to 

 involve themselves if they were to attempt to support the execution of 



