96 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



outside the county in ^vhich their station is located, until such 

 shipment has been inspected by the official duly appointed for 

 the district in which said station is located. If no county horti- 

 cultural quarantine has been authorized by the Board of County 

 Supervisors, inspection is not required, unless the shipment orig- 

 inated outside of the State of California, in which case property 

 must be held until inspected by the State Board of Horticulture. 



" All agents must keep themselves fully advised of all horticult- 

 ural ordinances passed, names, districts, and addresses of in- 

 spectors appointed by the county in which the station is located, 

 and will cooperate Avith and follow all instructions of such in- 

 spectors, that, by joint effort of the company and the various 

 horticultural Boards, the best interests of the State may be 

 served." 



Fruit growers in California thus ha.ve the matter of insect 

 pests practically in their own hands, and the work of any county 

 will be practically controlled by twenty-five enlightened fruit 

 growers. The early adoption of any such stringent legislation 

 in Eastern States is doubtful, but there is a growing necessity in 

 every State for a well-framed law which may be put into opera- 

 tion at the outset of any threatened outbreak of an introduced 

 or native species. Absolute safety by means of quarantine is 

 hardly to be accomplished even in California, and in a state so 

 well protected by its geographical situation as Massachusetts, 

 there is by no means the same need for a rigid quarantine. A 

 general law, however, ready to be put into operation might have 

 saved Massachusetts many thousands of dollars in the case of the 

 Gypsy Moth. Such a law in New York would enable efficient 

 work against that almost equally destructive European insect 

 now flourishing in the vicinity of New York City, the Leopard 

 Moth ; while such a law in New Jersey would enable the exter- 

 mination at the present day of the recently imported pear-tree 

 borer — an insect which, if it spreads, will render the growing 

 of pears all through the country a much more difficult and 

 expensive matter than it is at present. The objection to such 

 legislation has always been the fear of possible abuse of oppor- 

 tunities ; but the danger in this direction, it seems to me, is not 

 worth considering compared with the danger possible, and even 

 probable, to our horticultural interests in the absence of proper 

 laws. 



