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NUKSEKY INSPECTION 



The inspection of nursery stock was first provided for by the 

 enactment of a law in 1898, at which time there was much alarm 

 among the nurserymen and fruit growers of the state over the 

 discovery of two localities in the state of New York that had 

 become infested with San Jose scale. Other states were passing 

 laws requiring that all nursery stock shipped into the several 

 states should bear a copy of a certificate of inspection indicating 

 apparent freedom from -San Jose scale. At the beginning of 

 this work practically nothing was known of the extent of the 

 nursery business in the state of New York, neither was there 

 any information relative to the volume of business conducted by 

 the nurserymen with other states. Our first statute on this sub- 

 ject was drawn broad enough to include any contagious or in- 

 fectious disease or diseases, or the San Jose scale or other dan- 

 gerously injurious insect pest or pests, and the act provided that 

 the certificates to 'be issued to the nurserymen should embrace 

 the idea of apparent freedom from all. The law required the 

 annual inspection of all growing nursery stock in the state of 

 Xew York, and ar the present time it has been found necessary 

 to inspect over ten thousand acres of nursery stock, grown by 

 about six hundred and sixty nurserymen. SomS of these nurs- 

 eries are small, but the law requires that no nursery stock shall be 

 shipped from any point in the state of New York unless there be 

 attached to each box, bundle or package a copy of the certificate of 

 inspection issued by the Commissioner of Agriculture. Trans- 

 portation companies are forbidden to receive any nursery stock 

 for shipment unless accompanied by .said copy of certificate. 



SHIPMENT INSPECTION 



An amendment to the law was made in 1910 for two reasons: 

 (1) The inspection authorities of the state of Massachusetts 

 announced that they would" not commit themselves in their certifi- 

 cates of inspection* to nurserymen or give any assurance that 

 the nursery stock shipped from Massachusetts would be free 

 from egg masses of the gipsy moth, the reason given being that 

 the winter form of this injurious insect was so obscure that 

 certain evergreen trees on which the egg masses are located could 

 not be adequately inspected ; ( 2 ) the same year consternation 



