172 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The San Jose Scale Bill.— ThLvS bill passed the senate by a large 

 majority, 29 to 9, a few days since and is now in the possession of 

 the judiciary committee of the house. An effort is being made to 

 defeat it by nurserymen outside the state, who evidently fail to un- 

 derstand the purpose of the bill, reinforced by dealers in nur- 

 sery stock in the state who do not wish to be hampered in their 

 operations by any (juarantine regulations. The principal objec- 

 tions of these two classes to the bill seem to be based on the require- 

 ments of a bond and license and the power given the inspector to 

 require a copy of the orders filled. Those features were in the bill 

 formulated at Chicago by the convention of entomologists and 

 was brought from there by Prof. Lugger. In their judgment it was 

 necessary to require this bond to insure compliance with the in- 

 spection law and the lists to know where stock that might have been 

 infested had gone. Certainly if any law is to be passed to keep out 

 the pest, it should be thorough enough to be effective. 



The law as it passed the senate was modified in several minor par- 

 iculars from what was printed in the March number; the bond fee 

 was reduced to $1.00; provision made for accepting the certificate of 

 a state entomologist where there was no state inspector; a penalty 

 clause attached; and several other slight changes. 



In the judgment of those best qualified to decide, this legislation 

 as a reasonable preventative is very much needed and none too 

 stringent to accomplish its work. It will protect the planter as well 

 as the grower of nursery stock in the state and aside from the slight 

 inconvenience of giving a bond and attending to the inspection of 

 stock to be delivered, will not in any way hamper any dealer or out- 

 side nurseryman doing a business which will stand having the 

 light turned on. Our extra-state friends are certainly unnecessarily 

 concerned about this law, which places no restriction on them 

 which is unnecessary or differing in any respect from that required 

 of those residing within the state. 



Members of the society and all other friends of the measure are 

 requested to correspond with their representatives in the legislature 

 from their districts without delay. You may be sure the oppo- 

 nents of it are working the field very thoroughly. Similar legisla- 

 tion is now before the legislatures of Wisconsin, Illinois and 

 Michigan. Even if you have written once, write again; i1 will be a 

 wholesome reminder, and perhaps a necessary one. 



Mr. M. Crawford, of Cuyahoga Falls, O , has become a convert to 

 the Stringfellow theory and practice that trees, when planted, 

 should be pruned to a straight root, cutting close all side roots. Mr. 

 Crawford tried it this summer with good results, although some 

 would rather wait until a dryer season before they become entirely 

 converted to this new way. It has been the custom of ntirserymen 

 ever since whip-grafting of roots came into practice to cut off all 

 side branches, and the grafts have grown without trouble, so there 

 is really nothing new in Mr. Stringfellow's way, at least as far as 

 one-year trees are concerned. — Texas Farm and Ranch. 



