P.D. 123. 29 



convicted and in the other ease the defendant left the state before the com- 

 plaint was entered and has since been out of the jurisdiction. 



In connection with the prosecutions brought, numerous legal questions have 

 been investigated and legal problems arising in connection with various 

 branches of the department's work have also been given attention. The 

 organization of drainage and reclamation districts has raised numerous ques- 

 tions on such subjects as obstruction of water courses, mill rights, pollution 

 of streams, and so forth, some of which have required considerable study. 

 A regrettable feature of some of these cases is that valid rights originally 

 belonging to some of the parties concerned have been lost by failure of the 

 parties to take legal action within the time limit set by law. Occasionally 

 this failure to act has apparently been due to the ignorance of the parties, 

 but more commonly to the reluctance of these parties to take legal proceedings 

 on account of the probable expense and the long delay likely to be experienced 

 in securing a decision from the courts. 



Further work has been done on the compilation of the agricultural laws of 

 the commonwealth. 



No complaints have been made during the year about fraudulent promotions 

 of agricultural inventions or similar schemes. 



The year closed with' the preparation of material for the recommendations 

 of the department for legislation to be considered by the session of the General 

 Court in 1924. 



REPORT OF THE DIVISION OF PLANT PEST CONTROL. 

 Nursery Inspection. 



The inspection of nurseries during the year 1923 has been conducted along 

 the usual lines. The field inspection started early in May, at which time 

 an examination was made of the five-leaved pines for white pine blister rust 

 and of all pines for European pine shoot moth. It is unusual to find other 

 than an isolated case of either of these pests in the nurseries, yet each year 

 a careful inspection is made for them. A general inspection of the nurseries 

 was made during the summer with especial attention devoted to stock sus- 

 ceptible to scale. A small amount of both San Jose and oyster-shell scale 

 was found, as was to be expected, but all such infestations were immediately 

 destroyed or the stock withdrawn from sale. Unless the infested stock is of 

 a rare variety we usually recommend that it be destroyed and this practice 

 continued over a period of years has reduced our infestations so that they 

 are very easily taken care of. 



A meeting of the Federal Horticultural Board was held in the State HouSe, 

 Boston, in August to discuss the present gypsy moth situation and the best 

 way of ascertaining that shipments of nursery stock originating in the in- 

 fested area would be free from this pest. About fifty New England nurserymen 

 were present as well as State and Government officials. In a detailed dis- 

 cussion the conditions in and around the nurseries, the possible carriers other 

 than nursery stock, such as stone and quarry products, lumber, etc. were 

 brought out. Shortly afterwards the following regulations were issued and 

 are still in force. 



" Whenever any nursery in the gypsy moth or brown-tail moth area is 

 reported by a State inspector to be appreciably infested with either the 

 gypsy moth or the brown-tail moth, or Avhenever such infestation is deter- 

 mined by a Federal inspector on his examination of shipments from such 

 nursery, further certification for interstate movement from that nursery will 

 be refused until after the close of the next gypsy moth egg-laying season, 

 or until such nursery has been inspected and certified by the State to be 

 apparently clean." 



The inspection in the nurseries for gypsy moths cannot be made until the 

 first part of September, when it is reasonably certain that all the eggs have 

 been laid. It is necessary to have a large force of well trained men for the 

 work. If our inspection showed that the nursery was not apparently free of 



