342 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



APPEAL. 



In case the owners question the decision of a single commissioner they 

 can appeal to the full board, and if not then satisfied they can have the 

 matter referred to the State Inspector of Nurseries and Orchards, whose 

 decision will be final. 



For information regarding the duties of the State Inspector of Nurser- 

 ies and Orchards, reference is made to Act 137, Laws of 1897, printed 

 herewith. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE STATE INSPECTOR OF NURSERIES AND 



ORCHARDS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Michigan legislature of 1897 passed what is known as the Nursery 

 Inspection Law (Act 137, Laws of 1897) which required the State Board 

 of Agriculture to appoint a state inspector of nurseries and orchards, 

 and made it obligatory upon all nurserymen doing business in the state to 

 have their stock inspected, and to take out a license and give a bond that 

 they would comply with the provisions of the law. The law went into 

 effect September 1, 1897, and the board appointed Prof. U. P. Hedrick, 

 late of the Oregon Agricultural College, as inspector under the law. He 

 entered upon his duties about the middle of the month, but resigned at the 

 end of the year to accept the professorship of horticulture in the Utah 

 Agricultural College. Mr. D. W. Trine was appointed as his successor. 



Of more than one hundred nurseries inspected none were found to 

 be infested with San Jos6 scale, although the scale was found on the 

 premises of three tree dealers who had heeled in surplus stock. In 

 neither of these cases was there any nursery stock growing in the vicinity 

 that will be sold, and as all the trees that could be regarded as suspicious 

 were at once burned, it is hoped that it has been stamped out. 



The law permits fruit growers to dispose of surplus plants, but all other 

 parties who sell nursery stock in Michigan without complying with the 

 provisions of the law are subject to fine or imprisonment, or both. 



Some nurserymen have given the impression that the certificate of the 

 inspector " guaranteed " the stock, but it does nothing of the kind, as it 

 merely states that he has examined the stock and has found no trace of 

 injurious insects or dangerous diseases. It in no way guarantees the stock 

 to be true to name or even well grown, and should not be understood as 

 applying to the quality of the stock except as above stated. 



