No. 4.] SAN JOSE SCALE. 311 



greens and many other shade trees our nurseiymen supply 

 the needs of others less favorably situated. Thus eaeh nurs- 

 eryman is largely dependent upon his fellow tradesmen for a 

 considerable part of his stock ; and, this being the case, in- 

 fested trees are often unwittingly disseminated, since it is 

 impossible, in the rush of the shipping season, to open and 

 carefully examine all the stock received before using it in 

 tilling orders. There are, however, certain precautions 

 which all nurserymen may adopt, and thus reduce the chance 

 of receiving and disseminating infested stock. Among them 

 are : — 



1. Dealing with Reputable Firms. — There are certain 

 nursery companies whose dishonesty in sending out stock 

 falsely named or badly infested with the scale has made them 

 notorious. Their disreputable business proceedings are 

 matters of common comment among nurserymen with whom 

 I have conversed, and yet I have frequently found that many 

 of our Massachusetts growers have purchased stock from 

 these firms within recent years. For example, a certain New 

 Jersey firm for a long time has been recognized as one of the 

 chief offenders in sending out infested trees, yet many of our 

 nurserymen annually risk the safety of their nurseries by 

 trading with this firm. The stigma of selling infested stock 

 conies upon the one who makes the final sale, and in dealing 

 with disreputable firms the nurseryman takes the chance of 

 being classed with them. 



2. The "Refuse" Garden. — In some of the nurseries 

 which the writer has visited he has found a certain area of 

 land set apart and dedicated to the use of refuse stock. Here 

 are assembled the pariahs of the nursery world. Here 

 dwarfed, misshapen and diseased trees are set out to live or 

 die, as the case may be. Here all kinds of nursery pests 

 flourish unrestricted, and from such a centre they spread out 

 and infest the nursery. Here, also, tree peddlers and bar- 

 gain hunters find and obtain their bargains in trees. In one 

 case coming under the writer's personal observation such a 

 refuse garden contained the "culls" and outcasts of three 

 abandoned nurseries, as well as the refuse stock of four or 

 five years' accumulation from a large active nursery. Out 

 of about a thousand trees, over one-half were badlv infested 



