174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



tags, and this fall 18,780 more, were sold, which indicates the 

 extensive business done in Massachusetts by the nurserymen 

 of other States. 



The danger of the introduction, on importations of stock 

 from abroad, of pests and diseases not now present in this 

 State, is a very real one and has been constantly kept in mind. 

 Until recently, however, it has been impossible to learn of the 

 receipt of imports, and therefore nothing like a general examina- 

 tion of them could be made. For the last year or two, through 

 tlie kindness of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 regular statements or all shipments of niu-sery stock into iNIas- 

 sachusetts from abroad Iiave been received from the various 

 ports of entry, making it possible to examine this stock before 

 any pests or diseases it might harbor should be able to escape 

 and establish themselves. These imports of nursery stock 

 are very numerous, there having been 4,964 separate packages 

 during the year 1911, many of which contained hundreds and 

 even thousands of plants, each of which requires examination. 



During the last three years the gypsy and brown-tail moths 

 have invaded practically every nursery in eastern Massachusetts. 

 Tliis lias necessitated the most careful and thorough inspection 

 of all these places after the 10th of September, as until that 

 date the insects might enter the nursery from outside, after 

 the inspector had completed his work. In the case of many 

 varieties of stock, the presence of these pests cannot be con- 

 clusively settled until after the leaves have fallen, so that unless 

 all business of the nurseries be stopped till the middle or end of 

 October, some other method of supervision becomes necessary. 

 This has been solved by placing inspectors at different points, 

 with instructions to examine every plant shipped from nurseries 

 within the territories assigned to them, and when found clean 

 to issue certificates for those particular shipments, leaving 

 .inspection of the nurseries as a whole, for these pests, until 

 after the leaves had fallen, thus permitting the nurserymen to 

 carry on their business during the fall without waiting until 

 their entire nurseries could be inspected. 



The statements just presented show in outline how much the 

 work of nursery inspection has increased and changed during 

 the last ten years. Yet during this time the appropriation, 

 originally S1,000, has been increased to $2,000 only. Realizing 



