REPORl' OF THE SOCIETY 



71 



the mail on the condition that the importer have a'l his parcels ordered from 

 countries east of Canada, addressed in care of the P ant Inspector, Montreal; 

 and all parcels ordered from countries west of Canada addressed in care of the 

 Plant Inspector, Vancouver. Consequently al' parcel post shipments arriving 

 in Canada must be inspected either at Vancouver or Montreal. 



One of our inspectors visits the post office the first thing every morning, 

 inspects the parcels and re-addresses them so that they proceed to final desti- 

 nation with as little delay as possible. 



Nursery stock arriving at the port of ^Montreal via boat is nearly all 

 inspected at the docks, unless the Department has a local inspector at the final 

 po nt of destination where the consignment is billed to; in that case the goods 

 proceed to destination for inspection. 



Navigation at the port of Montreal opened for the season o 1924, at the 

 beginning of May, and closed at the end of November. During the period, 

 500 calls were made bj' boats carrying cargo to Montreal. All these boats were 

 liable to have some kind of plant products on board, which would be subject to 

 inspection under the Regulations of the Destructive Insect and Pest Act. 



We also met n;ost of the passenger vessels last season and inspected any 

 plants that passengers were carrying with them, or packed in their baggage. 



We are kept very busy in the fall at Montreal, attending to importations of 

 nurserj^ stock. In the spring most of the nursery stock is shipped by way of 

 St. John. 



Last fall as many as 7,000 cases of nursery stock arrived in one week, but 

 this was exceptional Most of the cases were bulbs; time did not permit our 

 opening every box, so we opened one box under each ma k, and if it was found 

 to be in good condition, the other boxes under the same marks were "passed". 



Quite a number of pests were intercepted during the past year, most of them 

 being insects that are already present in Canada. One ser ous pest taken was 

 an egg mass of the gipsy moth on a consignment of azaleas from Belgium. This 

 case carried the Belgian certificate of inspection so that it goes to prove that nc 

 matter how careful the inspector may be in the county of origin, occasional y 

 a pest will be m'ssed, and this necessitates the re-examination of the plants on 

 arrival at destination. 



The following is a summary of the nursery stock which was inspected at 

 Montreal during the past year (1924) : 



Total packages 8, 109 



Total value S 409,022.50 



