20 STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



Plants From Quarantined Districts. 



The people of California can not secure plants from interdicted dis- 

 tricts on commercial orders, nor can they secure even individual plants 

 in the ordinary way from such territory. However, the State Quar- 

 antine Officer, recognizing that our State should not be prohibited from 

 introducing new and improved 'kinds and varieties, has devised a scheme 

 through which such introductions may be made without violating the 

 spirit of a quarantine order. Those desiring to secure a few plants 

 from a quarantined district for experimental purposes should read the 

 remarks in this bulletin under Quarantine Order No. 1. and, if possible, 

 make arrangements to secure the desired stock through the Division of 

 Plant Introduction of the Bureau of Plant Industry at Washington. 



Rejecting Nursery Stock. 



Some difference of opinion exists as to the scope of the Horticultural 

 Quarantine Law and the authority of the State Commissioner of Horti- 

 culture in handling trees grown in California and found infested or 

 diseased at the point of delivery within the State. This may be illus- 

 trated by the following case : An intercounty shipment of apple trees 

 was detained by the county horticultural commissioner and sent back to 

 the shipper on account of crown-gall appe^:'irig on a certain number of 

 the trees. The nurseryman who shipped tins stock objected, claiming 

 that the commissioner should have culled out the diseased trees and 

 released the clean stock to the purchaser, lie threatened to refer the 

 matter to the State Commissioner. Replying to this threat the inspect- 

 ing commissioner wrote the nurseryman: "I note what you say about 

 referring the matter to the State Commissioner. If he rules that stock 

 is not to be rejected on account of crown-gall I will make no further 

 rejections for this cause." 



This case should have been decided wholly by the county horticultural 

 commissioner, regardless of what the State Commissioner should rule. 

 The last-named official has no right to pass upon such cases in any way, 

 until he has first quarantined the district or the article as provided in 

 chapter 600, Political Code, and no authority can be found for sending 

 out of the county infected stock grown within the State. It must not 

 be inferred from this that the trees under consideration should have been 

 released, or allowed to be planted in the county by the horticultural 

 commissioner. Chapter 299, Political Code (the county horticultural 

 law), has declared such a lot of trees a public nuisance (section 2322a), 

 and prescribes the method of abating it, namely, to hold the infected 

 plants and eradicate the disease. If eradication is impossible, the trees 

 remain a public nuisance, and can not be turned over to the consignee. 

 They may be held indefinitely in this way, and the process become equiv- 

 alent to a permanent quarantine, initiated and controlled entirely by the 

 county horticultural commissioner into whose territory the trees have 

 been delivered. There appears to be no legal means of getting the plants 

 out of the county of delivery, after having been declared a nuisance, and 

 they should be sent back to the shipper by agreement if thought desirable 

 by the commissioner. This should, of course, be done prior to serving 

 notice under the above-named section of the law. In most cases the 

 nurseryman would be glad to receive bac'k a diseased lot of plants that 

 might have escaped his own inspection. In cases of refusal or delay. 



