April, 11] NATIONAL INSPECTION LAW 281 



to say, however, that we have not come down here to antagonize 

 the principle of inspection and control. I am glad to see from this 

 discussion that we are united upon the principles for which this bill 

 stands. We have a little difference of opinion as to the best methods 

 to be pursued, and these I believe are honest differences of opinion, 

 and we ought to be able to get together"; and he continues in the 

 same vein. 



This sounds fair enough, but in his signed report with other members 

 of the committee, published in the National Nurseryman for May, 

 1910, page 598, he says: "A hearing was granted by the House Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture at Washington on April 27 and 28, and your 

 committee appeared at the hearing and made the strongest argument 

 possible, first against the bill; second, suggesting some amendments 

 and modifications if it were determined by the committee (House 

 Committee on Agriculture) that some legislation is necessary." 



It is evident that this nurserymen's committee, in spite of its fair 

 promises, is first and foremost against legislation. In its report, 

 referred to above, this committee advises every nurseryman in the 

 country to immediately write to the Committee on Agriculture, 

 protesting "in the strongest terms against the adoption by this com- 

 mittee of House Bill 23252, on the special ground that the power 

 and authority granted by section 8 is liable to create abuses, and 

 that the nursery interests in the country do not feel safe in placing 

 in the hands of any federal official, such absolute control over the 

 seedlings, the raw material of the nurseryman, from which fruit trees 

 are produced." 



The final action of the importing nurserymen, referred to in the 

 introduction, blocked legislation at this session, notwithstanding 

 that section 8 of the bill was to have been modified to meet the objec- 

 tions voiced in the last paragraph. This completes the chapter of 

 the attitude of these importers, and presents the picture of this small 

 commercial interest, for the moment checking legislation which is 

 bound to come, and which will in the end be just as useful to nursery- 

 men as it will be to fruit growers and forestry interests. 



Published by the Legislative Committee of the American Associa- 

 tion of Economic Entomologists. 



T. B. Symons, 



State Entomologist, Maryland. 



J. B. Smith, 



State Entomologist, New Jersey. 



E. L. WORSHAM, 



State Entomologist, Georgia. 



