384 JOURNAL OP ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 2 



well acquainted with nursery practices, customs, etc., so as to make 

 only such demands as are practicable from the nursery standpoint? 

 We all know that it is difficult to so conduct our inspections and so 

 word our certificates that all kinds of stock shall always be properly 

 covered by certificate, — there is so much of buying and selling, trad- 

 ing, dealing, one nursery growing stock for another, agents carrying 

 over refused stock, etc., etc. I fear that those of us who make our in- 

 spections with an eye to their efficiency from the entomological view- 

 point solely often make demands of our nurserymen that are well nigh 

 impossible to meet in commercial practice. We are properly sensitive 

 if persons in any other walk of life intrude themselves or their ideas 

 into our affairs, for we maintain that such persons do not know what 

 really is or is not practical in entomological work. Is there not 

 reason for us to be careful that we in looking after the one question of 

 insect pests do not give the nurserymen just cause to resent our 

 inspection work ? This idea has grown on the writer year by j^ear, — 

 while we were adhering to the custom of doing the work in person 

 or having only technically trained assistants (college men) to do the 

 inspection work. When it became necessary some two years ago to 

 secure an inspector a young man was selected who had five years' 

 actual experience in a commercial nursery, and who therefore knows 

 the conditions of nursery work and trade, can recognize varieties in 

 the nursery row, and is thoroughly familiar with all the practices com- 

 mon to the nursery business. This man was already familiar enough 

 with San Jose scale to be a good inspector, and with very little further 

 study and experience has developed into a good all-round man in 

 nursery and orchard inspection work^ spraying work, etc. It strength- 

 ens our work among the nurserymen if our inspectors show a practical 

 familiarity with the nursery business, in addition to being expert in 

 detecting insect and fungous troubles. 



It has been our endeavor to cut out all the immaterial, unimportant 

 details and center our efforts on the main points that are at stake in 

 the nursery inspection, and w^e have tried to make both our work and 

 its requirements more simple and more effective year by year. We 

 find that the proportion of nurseries found to be infested by San Jose 

 scale is slowly increasing, and this seems to be inevitably the case 

 through most of the eastern states, but we can at the same time assert 

 that the average condition of the infested nurseries is becoming better 

 year by year. 



There are a few who still regard the inspection as a mere matter of 

 form, but they are mo.stly growers of ornamentals, berries, etc., to 

 whom the inspections do not apply so exactingly, or else they are 



