212 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



and later the senate decided in favor of the bill. The system has 

 certainly not been given a sufficient trial, and with the immense 

 interests at stake, the amount expended in its operation is simply 

 infinitesimal. 



Forestry Legislation. — The State Forestry Association is to be 

 congratulated in securing its annual appropriation of $1,500 from 

 this legislature,which has taken for its motto "retrenchment." The 

 "forest reserve area" measure did not fare as well. It was nursed 

 through"! all the various committees in the house and senate until 

 it was considered safely on for the last act, its final passage, when, 

 at the last, it was referred to the senate finance coinmittee as it 

 carried an appropriation of $100, and then, probably through over- 

 confidence on the part of its friends^ it met its death. The measure 

 was far-reaching in its effects and was intended to lay the founda- 

 tions for a forestry system commensurate with the magnitude of 

 these interests in our state. Its failure is a public misfortune and 

 especially at this time, when a large area of land would have been 

 donated to this purpose. 



Fate of the San Jose Scale Bill. — This important quarantine 

 legislation, which the legislative committee of our society, assisted 

 by a large number of our members, has worked zealously to secure» 

 met its fate in a minute on the afternoon of the day before the final 

 adjournment of the last legislature. Proposed laws were being 

 considered and passed upon at the rate of thirty an hour, and it was 

 necessary that such haste should be madeto finish up the work of 

 the session already laid out. Two minutes is a very short time to 

 post the average law-maker so that he may safely render judgment 

 as to the advisability of any proposed law that deals with an un- 

 familiar subject; and so two-thirds of those voting, who had not 

 had opportunity to know the facts, said "no," and the members of 

 the various committees before whom we had successful hearings 

 were not enough in number to save the measure, and it was laid 

 away for a time. We can scarcely hope that the failure of the bill 

 to become a law will not prove a misfortune to the fruit growing 

 interests of the state with the insect already in so many places in 

 Illinois, a state with which we have so intimate business relations 

 in the matter of nursery stock. It is likely that nurserymen outside 

 our state are not sorry that this bill has failed to pass, as it would 

 put them to a little inconvenience and the risk is not theirs, but 

 with us facing the probability that in the next two years the insect 

 may find a foothold in the state, it is a serious matter. That the 

 nurserymen of the state will do everything they can to keep it out, 

 we are assured, but with so many irresponsible dealers in nursery 

 stock who are exploiting Minnesota, and without permanent inter- 

 est in our welfare, the risk is certainly very real. 



