84 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and effective inspection has been carried out. Tlie character and grade 

 of the inspection in the various states under this method could be 

 made more nearly uniform and certainly more satisfactory. By this 

 method a certificate granted to a certain nursery would be accepted in 

 all other states without the necessity of resorting to various methods 

 for complying with the law of that particular state, in which a nur- 

 sery wishes to ship its stock. No little confusion and trouble results at 

 the present time in the attempt made by various nurseries to comply 

 with the State Laws, where the nursery has a business ranging through 

 a large number of states. 



As an instance I would mention the requirement of the Wisconsin 

 Nui*sery Ins]i<H'tion Law which demands that nurseries outjside the 

 state doing a retail business within the state of Wisconsin, shall ob- 

 tain a nursery license by furnishing a duplicate copy of their own state 

 license and a ten dollar license fee. This plan seems to me to be a 

 poor arrangement but when you consider that we require the same fee 

 from our local Wisconsin nursei'ymen, and that they must comply with 

 the requirements of the law and strict inspection, it seems no more 

 than right that outside nurseries shall obtain the same privileges of the 

 sale by complying with the same requirements. 



This idea is not a new one by any means but it has been proposed 

 and discussed by various bodies — Economic Entomologists and Nur- 

 serymen, but so far nothing has been done to make our nurseiy inspec- 

 tion laws more uniform and it is only by constant and general agita- 

 tion of this subject, that we can hope to obtain this final result. 



Another phase of nursery inspection which to me under the present 

 arrangements seems very unwieldy and expensive, is the method now 

 used in insi)ecting shipments of foreign stock to this country. Under 

 the present arrangement the various State Inspectors are notified 

 through the Department of Agriculture by the Customs Officers of the 

 receipt of shipments of stock consigned to their states. These ship- 

 ments arrive in all portions of the state and at almost any season of 

 the year, thus reciuiring many trips to inspect a comparatively small 

 amount of stock. You will understand this inspection work is gener- 

 ally carried on to prevent the possible introduction into any territory 

 of those terrible pests, the ''Gypsy Moth" and the "Brown-tail Moth" 

 and other dangerous insects and fungus diseases. 



It has been proposed and a bill was drafted to the effect that the 

 Federal Government should assume the respons-^Mlity of inspecting 

 these importations at the port of entry, which seems the most reason- 

 able measure to carry out, and also the most certain method to prevent 

 the introduction of these pests. This bill was drawn up and presented 

 to the Committees in the National Congress a couple of years ago but 

 like many other bills proposed it was ignominiously shelved. It is 

 generally recognized that the majority of our economic insects of prime 

 importance in this country are of foreign origin; therefore, it only 

 seems reasonable that the easiest method to prevent large loss in this 

 country by insects which are dangerous in their native country and 

 may be introduced here, is to prevent such introduction by thorough 

 inspection methods. The great importance of such work is scarcely real- 

 ized by the average layman, nor is the danger of importing these 

 serious pests properly appreciated until he has had some ample ex- 



