224 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



NURSERY INSPECTION IN FLORIDA 

 By F. M. O 'Byrne 



To the ordinary observer the present nursery inspection require- 

 ments in Florida may seem to be far fetched and over exacting. But 

 they are but the logical outgro^vth of a trjang experience through 

 which we are now passing and each step has been necessitated by some 

 actual and costly experience. 



It will not be possible in the short time at my disposal to more than 

 mention the steps which have led us to our present position. Quite 

 briefly they are as follows. In the years of 1911-12 there were imported 

 into the state of Florida over 35,000 diseased citrus seedlings. These 

 came from a nursery in another state, which nursery had been in- 

 spected and certified as apparently free from especially injurious insect 

 pests and diseases. This is no reflection on the other state, for this 

 disease was new to them and had not as yet been recognized as a new 

 disease but was thought to be an unusual form of an old, well-known 

 maLady. 



This new disease was especially virulent on grape-fruit trees. The 

 nursery first found to be infected had many branches in the state. 

 These branches were grouped under two separate managements. 

 The particular branch showing the disease was placed under quaran- 

 tine but shipments proceeded from the other branches. Somewhat 

 later another branch controlled by the same management was found to 

 be diseased. It was immediately quarantined but still shipment pro- 

 ceeded from four other branches. We did not know, as yet, that this 

 disease was dreadfully and terribly infectious and could be carried on 

 the hands or clothing of an inspector or workman. Nor did we know, 

 as yet, that under certain conditions the disease could apparently 

 remain dormant on infected trees for a year or more before becoming 

 visible to an inspector. The nurseries always claimed that they had 

 been exercising every care to protect the other branches from becoming 

 infected and the department, especially in the light of the weak law 

 under which they were working, did not feel that they could quarantine 

 a branch which was widely separated from the others and worked 

 largely by a separate crew of men, until that particular branch showed 

 signs of the disease. One after another, each of these branches showed 

 the disease and in August of 1915, this malady was discovered in their 

 last apparently unaffected branch. 



It was learned that trees in certain of these shipments had devel- 

 oped the disease and, as it was the intention of the authorities to erad- 



