April, '21] o'byrne: standardized nursery inspection 187 



Second, these lists are valuable for other purposes. They show the 

 State Horticulturist where the biggest plantings are being made : What 

 the most popular varieties are : How the varieties differ in different sec- 

 tions of the State : How much and what kind of nurser}^ stock is coming 

 into the State: Whether a state exceeds in its imports or exports of 

 nurserv^ stock, etc. Much information of value to state officials is 

 constantly to hand in these lists. 



Third, they often enable the Inspector to nip in the bud a violation of 

 the law. If an invoice passes through his hands that clearly indicates a 

 violation, he can act promptly. If it raises his suspicions he can investi- 

 gate. The invoices coming through the Florida office have given us the 

 necessary clue on five or six occasions in the last four years. 



Fourth, it stops the use of invalid and altered certificate tags so com- 

 mon in most states, for at the end of the year the nurseryman is required 

 to return all unused tags to be canceled or destroyed by the Inspector. 

 Then there are no invalid tags on hand to get mixed with the valid ones, 

 or to tempt altering on the part of the frugal nurseryman. 



Fifth, it stops the dangerous practice, so common in most states, of 

 misusing certificate tags. Certificate tags are legal documents: They 

 should not be used as address tags for shipping ordinary express and 

 freight. To so use them is to lower their importance and significance in 

 the eyes of transportation employees. But the most dangerous practice 

 and one that is all too common in many states, is the intentional misuse 

 of a certificate for deception. For example: Mr. Brown goes to the 

 transportation office with a package of uninspected stock. The trans- 

 portation agent refuses to accept the shipment because "there is no 

 certificate tag attached." Mr. Brown goes home with his bundle, calls 

 at Mr. Ray's nursery and "borrows" one of his certificate tags. This 

 he attaches to his bundle and marches proudly and virtuously to the 

 transportation office, often not realizing that he is violating the law, and 

 not caring. He may strike a different agent at the transportation office, 

 or if he strikes the same one the agent will not read the certificate and 

 notice the discrepancy: Who ever heard of a transportation agent 

 reading a certificate tag? Even if the agent should notice the discrep- 

 ancy, what could he do? Nothing. The law says there must be a 

 certificate tag attached to each package of nursery stock shipped. 

 The law doesn't say that it must correspond in name to the shipper. 

 If the tag is attached the agent's responsibility ends and off goes the ship- 

 ment of uninspected stock under a certified tag — more dangerous than 

 if it had no tag attached. Do you think this never happens in your 

 state' It is happening in most states every day during the shipping 

 season as the interceptions by the Florida Quarantine Department 



