152 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



complain of poor crops and hard times; yet, if the yellows commissioner 

 calls upon them, they are ready to defend their poor, scrubby, infested, 

 half-dead trees with a shotgun. 



What would we do about it? What could we do about it? That is 

 the question. 



We do not fear the pushing, up-to-date fruitgrower or the honorable 

 nurserymen, for if they have the misfortune to get this pest they will 

 stamp it out without compulsion. But I am sorry to say that time has 

 revealed to us eastern nursery firms who, in order to save temporary 

 loss to themselves, have knowingly scattered the dread pest, the San Jose 

 scale, to the four winds of heaven; so complete has been their work, 

 aided by the buyer and the ignorant and irresponsible jobber in cheap 

 stock, that our nurserymen and horticulturists last winter realized 

 that something must be done quickly to save our great horticultural 

 interests here in Michigan. 



The quickest way to call the public attention to an existing evil is 

 for congress or the state legislature to commence investigation. News- 

 papers are always hungry for news, and the grass was never known to 

 grow under the feet of a newspaper reporter, consequently those who 

 read and keep up with the times often comply with the spirit of a law 

 long before it is passed or comes into effect. A law can not be enforced 

 unless public sentiment is behind it and pushing its officers to carry 

 out its letters. But when public sentiment is sufficiently aroused, so 

 that citizens realize their danger, there is little need of laws. Laws 

 are useful and necessary only by providing a. remedy to cure those who 

 diregard their own and their neighbors' safety and welfare. 



Kealizing, as I think we all do, the need of laws and public opinion, 

 to help fight these insect armies that are making such a successful con- 

 quest on our orchards, we must consider what is the best means to 

 adopt, what line of battle shall we map ont, when shall we commence 

 the campaign. The law passed by our legislature last winter was a 

 step in the right direction, and in the absence of a national law it is a 

 marked success, so far as regards inspection of nurseries. 



What we need is a national law to provide for the inspection of nur- 

 sery stock, which will strike at the root of the evil, and then revise our 

 state law to provide for the inspection of orchards and fruits. These 

 laws should be framed in simple language, without attempt to be spe- 

 cific; and, backed by the fruitgrowers and nurserymen, they would prove 

 successful. 



At the last meeting of the American Association of Nurserymen, last 

 June, the following bill was prepared and adopted by the Association, 

 to be presented at the next session of congress, and it covers the ground 

 so completely, for a national law, that I will read it. It is entitled 

 "An act to provide rules and regulations for the inspection of trees, 

 plants, shrubs, vines, grafts, cuttings, and buds, commonly known as 

 nursery stock, imported into the United States; and for rules and regula- 

 tions for the inspection of trees, plants, shrubs, vines, grafts, cuttings, 

 and buds, commonly known as nursery stock, grown within the United 

 States, which become subjects of inter-state commerce." 



Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 

 Cnited States of America in Congress assembled. That all trees, plants, shrubs, 

 vines, grafts, cuttings and buds, commonly Ivuown as nursery stocli, imported into 



