314 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



below which should be adopted by all purchasers of nursery 

 stock, in order to prevent as far as possible the introduction 

 of the scale. 



1. Buy First-class Stock. — In buying trees, as well as 

 in buying other goods, the habit of hunting for bargains will 

 ultimately prove an expensive one. The dealer who has 

 trees to sell at a price greatly below the usual trade rates 

 usually has some potent reason for making the reduction. 

 Cheap trees are usually " culls," and are most liable to be 

 infested with insect pests. Conversely, clean, thrifty stock, 

 while higher in price, is least liable to harbor undesirable or 

 dangerous insects. An abundance of such stock can be ob- 

 tained from the nurserymen of this State. It may be well to 

 emphasize the fact that it is more to the purchaser's advan- 

 tage to trade with home firms, the condition of whose stock 

 is known, than to buy from remote firms, whose grounds may 

 never have been inspected. In this State, even, one would 

 do better to buy from firms that have had the scale in the 

 past, but on whose grounds none can be found at present, 

 and who are fumigating all stock bought and sold, than to 

 purchase from nurseries whose condition is unknown. 



2. Avoid Tree Peddlers. — The writer would cast no as- 

 persions on the legitimate agents of responsible and reputa- 

 ble firms. But there are those best described as "tree 

 peddlers," who go through the farming districts of the State 

 selling trees alleged to possess marvellous fruit-bearing qual- 

 ities, and delivering second or third class stock, obtained 

 wherever it can be bought the cheapest. A common com- 

 plaint from farmers and others who have dealt with this class 

 of peddlers is that stock bought of them does not prove true 

 to name. One familiar with their methods could hardly ex- 

 pect the case to be otherwise ; and a man who will knowingly 

 falsify the varieties of trees, probably would not be above 

 selling diseased or infested stock for sound, healthy trees. 

 There are plenty of reputable nursery firms in the State who 

 will give the farmer's small orders the same care and atten- 

 tion paid to those of their largest patrons. Experience in 

 tracing infested stock to its original source has shown that 

 tree peddlers and middlemen have been largely responsible 

 for the dissemination of the scale in this State. 



