8i 



'way in this respect, the other Colonies followed suit, but in course 

 ■of a few years they eased on on the administration of the Regula- 

 tions, and again made it possible to get in larger lots of nursery 

 stock, and it is to this fact in large measure that I attribute the 

 presence of San José Scale in South Africa to-day, because the 

 inspectors could not cope with such large consignments time after 

 time, and do the high-grade work necessary to give the desired 

 result. It takes a great deal of character as well as physical 

 endurance to stand up against a big consignment. First of all 

 there comes the inclination to take the work in an easy fashion, 

 because a sense of security soon springs up when tree after tree is 

 apparently clean. It was the dogged determination that it was 

 ■' the next tree ' that saved me from admitting Pernicious (San 

 José) Scale twelve years ago. The greatest danger is that your 

 •eyes get tired, and then, though seeing, you do not see. 



" The next point I should Hke to impress is the training and 

 experience of the inspector. If my experience here has shown one 

 thing more clearly than another, it is that the inspector in charge 

 of over-sea plant imports should be the best-trained man mone}' 

 can get. What is the good of an inspector who does not know 

 what he is looking for ? We can get plenty of men who know the 

 common species that they see every day, but it takes a properly 

 trained man to see the unexpected or abnormal and grapple 

 with it. 



' ' This brings me to another point in regard to the inspection 

 of plants from over-sea, i.e. the exchange of men. Here in 

 South Africa we should have men who know x\merican, European, 

 and Australian insects. At the Eastern American ports there 

 should be men who know European and African insects. At the 

 Western ports there should be men who know AustraHan, Japanese, 

 and Chinese pests, etc. Australia should have men who know 

 Pacific and South African insects. The Brown Tail Moth was 

 stopped at Cape Town two or three years ago, simply through the 

 fact that Mr. Louxsbury's experience in Massachusetts enabled 

 him to recognise the webbed clusters of young larvie at once, and 

 deal with them accordingly. The same was true in the consign- 

 ments of Pernicious Scale that I destroyed. It seems to me 

 quite feasible for the difíerent countries to arrange for an exchange 

 of quahfied men for this over-sea inspection work." 



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