42 



side of him. In this way a great many trees will be examined while crossing- 

 a block. 



This question of nursery inspection is a very important one both to 

 the fruit-grower and to the nurseryman. But at the same time great care 

 must be taken in the wording of laws that no unjustified prejudice or harm 

 be done to the nursery trade; there must be some entente among the offi- 

 cials of the Government and members of the nursery trade. If not, some- 

 times quarantine laws and inspection laws may give no end of trouble. 



Now to give you an idea of what is going on in the States, I may say 

 that the Legislative Committee of the American Association of Nursery- 

 men made ten trips to Washington in the last six years and has accom- 

 plished a lot of work in the remodeling of the Federal laws relating to the 

 importation of all foreign stock and seedlings, which in many lines con- 

 stitute the raw stock or basis of operations and production in the nursery 

 line. Do you know that the original Federal law contained a provision 

 that all imports should be inspected on the docks at port of entry.'' Think 

 of a single steamer bringing into New York 2,000 cases of French Seedlings, 

 all of which were to be inspected on the docks, there, where they have no 

 facilities for this work, no experienced man for the repacking of the stock, 

 meaning that all shipments would be delayed, abused and when they were 

 finally released and reached the nurserymen, the vitality of the stock and 

 seedlings would be greatly impaired. Now, the shipments, as in Canada, 

 come right through to destination without delay and are there inspected 

 as they should be. 



Therefore, it is my humble suggestion that a committee of three mem- 

 bers of this Society be named to look over any suggestion of a Provincial 

 law relative to the destruction or prevention of insects or diseases in the 

 nursery or orchard. This committee could have a hearing before the pass- 

 ing of such a law and anything detrimental may thus be averted in time. 



