STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 445 



during the past year my attention has been called to the fact that pack- 

 ages have been received by freight or express agents which were not duly 

 labeled, and such packages were ordered held until the owners could be 

 notified and certificates supplied or the packages returned. However, in 

 most cases, these apparent violations of the law have been due to neglect 

 or ignorance of the law on the part of the agents, rather than to willful 

 violation. 



LAWS IN OTHER STATES. 



Some of our nurserymen have been greatly annoyed and hindered in 

 their shipments to other States by the (seemingly) unnecessary amount 

 of red tape which has been woven into the laws of some of the States. 

 For example, duplicate certificates are required for filing in the States 

 of Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and 

 Wisconsin, and these duplicate certificates, in some of the States at least, 

 must contain the original signature of the inspector, not a certified copy 

 of it. Not only this, but the official tag of the State Board of Entomology 

 must accompany each shipment. In Montana all stock shipped into the 

 State will be unpacked, inspected and fumigated at designated quarantine 

 stations before it can be delivered. 



In Virginia it is unlawful for any person to sell or deliver any nursery 

 stock unless he shall first procure a certificate of registration, which will 

 cost him $20, and no nursery stock is allowed to come into the State unless 

 it contains an official tag which the nurseryman must have previously 

 purchased from the official in charge. With such a multiplicity of laws 

 and "provisions" to be observed, certainly the path of the nurseryman who 

 attempts to follow them all is anything but pleasant. Our law is simple, 

 plain, easily observed, and I believe as effectual as that of any other State. 

 I believe, too, that it will stand the tests of the courts much better than 

 some of those already mentioned. We prefer to believe that most nursery- 

 men, at any rate, are honest, and that it is quite unnecessary to give out 

 the impression that they are not by hedging them about by so many laws. 



Right here let me say that I believe that one of our greatest needs 

 today, so far as our American fruit interests are concerned, is national 

 legislation looking to the enactment of uniform inspection laws; and these 

 laws should apply, not only to imports, but to exports as well. At the an- 

 nual meeting of the American Apple Growers' Congress, recently held in 

 St. Louis, the statement was made by a New York exporter of American 

 fruits that during the past year a number of shipments of apples were 

 rejected in the European markets because they were covered with San 

 Jose scale. If that be true, is it any wonder that Germany is trying to 

 exclude American apples as well as American meat? A uniform system 

 of inspection before shipments are made would very largely obviate this 

 difficulty. 



