xxii BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



!N"uRSERY Inspection. 



The work of the ISTursery Inspector has proceeded during 

 the year with the usual inspections of nursery stock and 

 about the usual results. This work is becoming increasingly 

 difficult, through the lack of uniformity in the laws of the 

 various States, the lax inspection in some States, and the 

 practice of nurserymen to purchase their stock to fill orders 

 from others, either within or without the State. It is com- 

 plicated also by the increased spread of the gypsy moth and 

 the San Jose scale, — the two most dreaded insect pests, from 

 the standpoint of the orchardist. We are informed that 

 efforts are making for uniform legislation throughout the 

 country, which will do away with much of this difficulty, 

 and it is our hope that it will be secured, though we antici- 

 pate considerable difficulty. 



The law allowing the ISTursery Inspector to declare trees 

 and plants infested by insect pests a nuisance, upon com- 

 plaint of the party endangered by them, has not been availed 

 of by the owners of property in the State. There seems to 

 be a considerable degree of ignorance in regard to the pro- 

 visions of the law, and a certain degree of hesitancy about 

 making complaint against neighbors, even in the face of 

 certain danger. It would seem that the Board might well, 

 through the ISTursery Inspector, take some means to dis- 

 seminate a knowledge of the law among the people. I would 

 recommend that the committee on gypsy moth, insects and 

 birds be instructed to consider this matter, and take such 

 steps as may seem best in the premises. 



The conference of Governors, previously mentioned, re- 

 ferred the question of uniform laws against insect pests to 

 a committee consisting of the State Boards and commis- 

 sioners of agriculture and the official entomologists of the 

 ISTew England States. That committee met at this office and 

 appointed a subcommittee, which drafted a law to be pre- 

 sented to the Legislatures of the New England States, with 

 whatever local modifications might be necessary by the par- 

 ticular circumstances as to officers and control of the work. 

 This matter is under the charge of the State I^Tursery In- 

 spector, and a bill will be presented to the Legislature, in- 



