150 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



In conclusion, it is hoped and believed that in its official contest with 

 the scale, with the cooperation of nurserymen and fruitgrowers, the state 

 will be victorious, that the strong arm of the law will keep from our 

 orchards a foe to them to which an}' other j^et known is iusiguilicant in- 

 deed. We ask, in behalf of the law, the hearty support of all persons 

 interested in the welfare of Michigan orchards. 



THE NEED OF NURSERY INSPECTION LAWS. 

 BY MR. O. E. FIFIELD OF BENTON HAEBOB. 



This subject is not of my own choosing but I w^as asked to respond 

 to it by Secretary Reid. Since accepting the invitation, I received a 

 programme, and when I saw my name among so many professors, doc- 

 tors, and distinguished entertainers, I was afraid Secretary Reid had 

 repeated the mistake that the old lady in Vermont made. It is told that 

 a devoted old couple once lived in Vermont, and at the death of her 

 beloved husband the wife wished to have inscribed upon his tombstone 

 an appropriate inscription, to inform those who might read of her hus- 

 band's character. She wrote the line, "Lord, he was thine", and gave the 

 engraver instructions that she wished it engraved exactly as she had 

 written it. The old lady was unfortunate, as some of us are, in being 

 a poor speller;' but the engraver did as requested, and when complete 

 the inscription read, "Lord he was thin"! The subject, however, is of 

 such general and vital importance, not only to the nurserymen but fruit- 

 growers and planters, that though this paper be as uninteresting as a 

 dose of whale-oil soap, yet you will have to hear it through. 



It would seem that during the past four or five years, and specially 

 during the past two years, the bulletins of the department of agriculture 

 and of the state experminent station, the works of Professors Smith, 

 Comstock, and others, and the numerous horticultural publications 

 throughout the United States, had informed all the people sufficiently 

 of the need of inspection laws. But such is not the case. Nearly all of 

 us are fruitgrowers and seemingly intelligent planters, who today are 

 studying the catalogues and corresponding with infected nurseries for 

 cheap stock. They do not seem to consider quality, grade, nor purity, 

 but the "tip" is given the nurserymen to whom they write that "the lowest 

 bidder will secure the order." It reminds one of the man who went to 

 a shoe store for a pair of boots and asked for the largest pair the mer- 

 chant had. "Haint you got none bigger?" he asked. When assured that 

 the pair he held was as large as could be made from the hide of a four- 

 year-old steer, he bought them. It was a case of the most hide for the 

 smallest expenditure. The trouble is, too many people are looking for 

 more hide, and as a result we find our nurseries and orchards endangered 

 by the cheap stock, made cheap, often, because of infection by dangerous 

 disease or insects, and planted by men who, after they discover the 

 slock is infected, absolutely refuse to do one thing for our protection. 



Today there are twenty of the Eastern and Atlantic states that are 

 colonized by San Jos(? scale, all of which are responsible to nursery 



