456 TUB MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



That horticultural material passing through the mails requires inspection may be 

 shown by the following interceptions occurring during the twelve month period used. 

 Citrus white fly, twice ; plants in full foliage from white-fly states, four times ; pines 

 from the browntail moth area and without proper inspection at the originating point, 

 once ; peach stock from the peach yellows area, once ; crown gall, three times ; mealy- 

 bug, five times ; narcissus bulb fly, once ; nematode root knot, four times ; and such 

 other pests as hemispherical, aspidistra soft-brown and other scale insects, red 

 spider, thrips, hairy root, etc. 



The present system of handling the inspection, particularly in the country post- 

 offices, which, as before stated, are in the majority, where the postmaster knows 

 everyone and everyone knows the postmaster, is against human nature. Jones lives 

 up in the mountains among the pines. He orders a small lot of gooseberry plants, 

 and perhaps a chestnut tree, from an eastern nursery, to be delivered to him via 

 parcel post. He knows nothing about the danger of introducing white pine blister 

 rust or chestnut blight from such an area. He is sure that his plants will arrive at 

 his nearest office on a certain day. He drives in and finds them there, but learns 

 that they must be returned sixty miles to the nearest inspection center, through which 

 they have just passed, for inspection. He must put up half the price of the plants 

 to pay the postage for the trip down and back. The plants have already been on 

 the road ten days and the package feels dry. He can't spare the time from his 

 spring work to make a second trip in for the plants. The postmaster and the 

 addressee, neither being aware of the danger from admitting such plants without 

 proper inspection, and being old friends, get together on the matter with the result 

 that they cut out the what they term "unnecessary red tape" and Jones goes on his 

 way rejoicing with the plants under his arm. Nobody is the wiser until years later 

 when an investigation is started to determine just how the white pine blister rust 

 and the chestnut blight were introduced and became established, doing thousands of 

 dollars injury to the horticultural and agricultural interests of that section as well 

 as offering a source of natural spread of these serious pests on the Pacific Coast. 

 With the proper authority this package could have been held in transit at the inspec- 

 tion center through which it passed, with very little delay and no added expense to 

 the addressee or labor to the postmaster, and the state would have received full 

 protection. 



If the order in effect at the present time were designed to discourage the shipment 

 of plants by mail, and that is the way it should work out, theoretically, it has failed 

 in its purpose and has resulted, instead, in a feeling that the injustice of requiring 

 one to return plants to an office through which they have just passed, for inspection, 

 is only a matter of "official red tape." There are no serious consequences for the 

 postmaster found violating the same and he stands in better with his constituents if 

 he delivers perishable matter without delay. 



One should not criticise without offering a solution of the matter. I believe that 

 there is not a county in the state in which over SO per cent of the parcels passing 

 through the mails, containing horticultural material, do not pass through the very 

 inspection center to which they would be returned for inspection, ami the small 

 remaining per cent could easily be so routed as to do the same. Where there is a 

 sufficient quantity, some of these parcels pass through the center in closed sacks, but 

 with the proper regulations they could be thrown to sacks destined to be opened at the 

 inspection center and, following inspection, could be forwarded to the office of the 

 addressee with, as previously stated, a minimum of delay and no additional expense 

 to anyone concerned. Also, as previously stated, the inspection centers are of such 

 size that the postmaster in charge has no outside business and devotes his full time 

 to the postal work. He is familiar with all of the regulations and feels his responsi- 

 bility in seeing that they are properly carried out. He is the logical person to be 

 responsible for the holding of parcels for inspection, and if the system could be so 

 arranged that every parcel of plants or plant products, requiring inspection, consigned 

 to his or tributary offices, could be routed direct to or by way of his office and held 

 there, to be forwarded following inspection, I believe that the danger from the parcel 

 post system would be minimized and the state would receive the fullest protection 

 that inspection can give. 



With gipsy moth and browntail moth costing the state of Massachusetts $500,000 

 annually for their control and not considering the damage caused by these pests to the 

 forest and shade trees of that state ; with citrus canker costing the state of Florida 



