110 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



becomes known, an inspector simply takes charge, not of the business of 

 the owner, but of such a portion of his property as is infested with the 

 pest, and goes to work in an intelligent manner to eradicate it; and, this 

 accomplished, he turns what it has not been found necessary to destroy 

 over to the owner, with a certificate of its condition. What has been 

 destroyed may be paid for by the government, the price being so arranged 

 as to protect the government from being defrauded, and net the owner 

 a portion of the wholesale value. The fact of an inspector having charge 

 of an infested nursery would be the best assurance possible that every- 

 thing that might be shipped out was free of infection, while the unfort- 

 unate nurseryman may purchase supplies from uninfected localities 

 to carry on his business until a time when he can use his own. His 

 customers will have no possible excuse for deserting him, and a panic 

 among them would thus be prevented. Even if he were disposed to do so, 

 it would be impossible for the owner to ship infested stock, and his trade 

 would be thus retained by him until all trouble was over. Where the 

 infection has spread over a considerable territory, much of it being pri- 

 vate grounds, several counties might have to be managed in the same 

 way; but, with our inspection laws in force, this could hardly occur. 



Let us now pause a few moments to contrast the probable conditions 

 to be secured by such a system, with our present condition, under no sys- 

 tem. At the present time there is practically no protection from the im- 

 portation of foreign insect pests, and if a nursery or two are suddenly 

 found to be infested, the cry goes out that one or two nurseries in such a 

 state are affected, and are likely to spread a certain pest. Now, this does 

 not give a prospective purchaser the least indication of where the trouble 

 is really located, and as a consequence every nurseryman in the state 

 indicated must be boycotted in order that the two infested ones may be 

 avoided. This is surely the reverse of good business management, or 

 even justice, for it places the rascal with no reputation to lose on a par 

 with the man who has, perhaps, spent a lifetime in building up a reputa- 

 tion. I do not know of a worse feature of our present method, if, indeed, 

 it is worthy of such a designation, and I certainly believe that there can 

 be some plan devised whereby the public can be protected from the dis- 

 honest and disreputable, without wrecking the honest anc' deserving in 

 order to do so. Now, as I remarked before, tliis is merely suggestive. You 

 may revise my plan and re-revise it, and re-re-revise it, until it will be 

 as unrecognizable as the Wilson bill, yet I fully believe a system can be 

 devised, and will be some time in the future, that will protect our people 

 from both the carelessness of the foreign grower and shipper and from 

 each other. The cost to the government of sustaining such a system 

 need not be more expensive than the levenue service of a single one of 

 our more important ports of entry, and would not only protect the fruit 

 interests, but save many of our ])romiuent nurserymen who continually 

 import their stock from any amount of worry through fear of innocently 

 importing foreign insect pests. 



There is but one more phase of this problem, to which I wish to call 

 attention, and that is the importation of foreign parasites. There is 

 so much misconcepn'on in regard to this that I trust you will pardon me 

 if I take time to fully explain the matter, which is one with which I have 

 had an intimate connection. As I have stated, many of the foreign insect 



