INSPECTION BILL 129 



began some years ago by passing bills in their legislatures making it nec- 

 essary to inspect nursery stock, but afterwards it was necessary to take in 

 almost any other plant material, whereby insects could be transported 

 from one state to the other. At present, every state in the TJnion, with 

 the exception of Nebraska, has a law of that kind. 



Just last year there was a federal inspection bill passed by congress, 

 which made it necessary to inspect all kinds of material, including a 

 number of different kinds of bulbs, and greenhouse plants, and seeds 

 coming from foreign countries to see that they were free from insects, anu 

 in good condition, and under that bill I have been inspecting some plants 

 that are arriving into this country from abroad, from France, Germany, 

 Belgium, and Holland, and other places, and so far as I have been in- 

 specting plants in Nebraska, I have found the brown tailed moth, the 

 gypsy moth, the San Jose scale, and five or six other insects that would be 

 equally destructive if allowed to come into the state. This bill that was 

 drawn up was framed with the intention of driving out, or trying to pre- 

 vent the introduction into the state of these dangerously destructive in- 

 sects, and also the fungus dangerous to plants. 



The bill is prepared in accordance with the laws of the statutes in 

 other states around us, and not taking the worst features of those laws, 

 that makes it so very imperative that if you find an insect on a single 

 shipment of a thousand trees, that you should destroy the whole thou- 

 sand trees, but we say to destroy the one tree that you find an insect on. 

 It is not a bill that would work hardship on a producer. It has also in- 

 cluded that the commercial nursery should have an inspection made, and 

 ship under a certificate issued by the inspector. It has also included that 

 if you find these injurious insects that can be destroyed, that under the 

 direction of somebody that knows, these insects should be destroyed, 

 either by the property owner, or the state authorities if the property owner 

 will not do it. It is not confiscatory in any way, and we tried to be just 

 as lenient as possible in getting it out. And I know that the members of 

 the State Horticultural Society tried to be more stringent than I did, but 

 I should like to see something of this kind go through, because I had a 

 letter recently from the head of this federal bureau in Washington, stating 

 that if Nebraska did not soon come through with a law of this kind that 

 it would be necessary to quarantine against Nebraska by all other states, 

 and we do not want anything like that. 



The Chairman: I wish to state further that this bill was prepared by 

 the committee from this society laboring with Professor Bruner. The 

 nurserymen generally of this state would prefer to have the thing just as 

 it has been, that is, so that there is an absolutely free commerce between 

 the states, between this state and other states, speaking from a nursery- 

 man's standpoint. We do not want anything that is going to hinder Mr. 

 Lake or Mr. Welch or dealers of any other state that has clean stock 

 from, sending it in here. 



Mr. Duncan: In order to put this matler on record, I have a resolu- 

 tion to offer to the society here. 



