GRASSHOPPERS AND OTHER INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1911 AND 1912. 103 



of other states to have their stock inspected before it is shipped to 

 them. Many of the nurserymen who do not ship outside reahze 

 that it is a very good thing- to have their stock looked over by an 

 expert from the Agricultural College and his stamp of approval 

 placed thereon, also ask for inspection. 



This relation between the Experiment Station and the nurseries 

 works to advantage in a double way; it protects the public, and it 

 insures to nurserymen a careful oversight of their stock and infor- 

 mation and help if a dangerous foe is found. The nuserymen are 

 as anxious to keep out undesirable insects and destructive diseases 

 as their patrons are, hence inspection by a representative of their 

 own experiment station appears to them a highly desirable thing. 



In a few states, a very few, fortunately, the office of nursery 

 inspector is a political one, and therefore, unfortunately, results in 

 a lack of thoroughness in the work, and loss to both nurserymen 

 and the public. A political appointee, not only may be unfit by 

 knowledge for this work, but, and the more the pity, he may not 

 feel free to act with severity where such is necessary. On the 

 other hand, a member of the experiment station force is not 

 fastened by political strings, he is unhampered in his actions, and 

 by the very nature of his training and position, in a way to help the 

 nurserymen and those who buy nursery stock. The nurserymen, 

 in these days of increasing plant pests brought in from Europe, is 

 in a position to spread these destructive foes to horticulture over the 

 entire country unless the business is safe-guarded by proper in- 

 spection. Let us hope that in Minnesota this work may never be- 

 come a matter of politics and that the state's reputation for clean 

 stock, not only at home, but in other states into which Minnesota 

 nursery stock is shipped, be always retained. The moment Montana 

 Wisconsin, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and other 

 states begin to suspect laxity and looseness in Minnesota nursery 

 inspection, v.'^hich might come with a politically-appointed inspect- 

 or, they would shun our stock, buy from states where station in- 

 spection was the rule, and profits of Minnesota nurserymen would 

 fall ofi" from fifty to one hundred per cent. 



Inspection of Foreign Stock. 



The country is to be congratulated, florists as well as nursery- 

 men and their patrons, on the final passage of the so-called Plant 

 Quarantine Act (passed Congress August 20, 1912) which went 

 into effect October 1st of the present year. Under this law a Feder- 

 al Horticultural Board has been established which has the power 



