290 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



tail moth, San Jose scale, West Indian peach scale, peach 

 yellows, pear blight and black knot are those which have 

 been watched for ; but the San Jose scale and black knot 

 have, except in a few cases, been the only ones discovered. 



Black knot is rarely present on stock fit for sale, but the 

 San Jose scale may be present in small numbers without 

 being noticeable ; in fact, it is probable that in four-fifths 

 of the nurseries where it was found by the inspectors the 

 owners were not aware of its presence, even though it was 

 a common thing at the time of inspection to find trees 

 ready for deliver}^ so infested that it would be safe to guar- 

 antee their death Avithin a year, while plants already killed 

 by it stood in the nursery rows, the owners paying no 

 attention to them, supposing them to have been winter- 

 killed. 



This leads to a few general statements about Massachu- 

 setts nurseries. Of the eighty inspected, the majority can 

 be considered as in first-class condition ; some, however, 

 are being more or less neglected, and therefore ideal places 

 for the multiplication of insects and fungous diseases, which 

 are then distributed everywhere over the State on the stock 

 sold from these centres of contamination. 



The effect of the inspection law has been wonderfully 

 good for such nurseries as these, as reinspection has in 

 every case shown a weeding out of the worthless stock, and 

 a vast improvement in every way ; and it is ni}^ belief that 

 in this regard alone the law has been worth several times 

 its cost to the State, by improving the quality of the stock 

 for sale. 



In carrying out any law which involves the inspection of 

 l)ersonal property, it is only to be expected that objections 

 to it and attempts to defeat its object may be made in some 

 cases. With this in mind, it gives me pleasure to report 

 that only three or four such were met with in the course of 

 the whole work. Any good business man will at once see' 

 that an expert examination of his stock and the receipt of a 

 certificate is one of the strongest testimonials to its quality 

 which he can obtain, and this has been quickly recognized. 

 In the few cases where objections were made, it was where 



