SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL EEPOKT OF THE STATE 

 NUKSEKY INSPECTOR. 



To the State Department of Agriculture. 



The duties of the State Nursery Inspector, which are largely 

 protective in their nature, have been confined chiefly this year 

 to the inspection of nursery stock, the white pine blister rust 

 and the European corn borer. 



The inspection of nursery stock covers a period of nearly 

 nine months in the field, and is very essential inasmuch as it 

 is designed to check the spread of injurious insects and plant 

 diseases and thereby assure the purchaser securing good stock 

 and free from pests. The general inspection of growing stock 

 carried on during the summer showed the nurseries to be in 

 excellent condition. Infestations of the San Jose scale and 

 oyster shell scale, as well as other nursery insects and diseases, 

 were comparatively few and slight. In the spring all pines in 

 Massachusetts nurseries were inspected for the white pine 

 blister rust and the European pine shoot moth. In only one 

 nursery was any evidence of the blister rust found. Its dis- 

 covery in this nursery was perhaps to be expected, as currants 

 infected with the disease had been previously found in its 

 vicinity. Very few pines were found to be infected with the 

 European pine shoot moth this j^ear, and it is believed that the 

 careful inspection for this pest annually has nearly exterminated 

 it from our nurseries. The inspection of nursery stock for the 

 gypsy and brown-tail moths revealed that the former was 

 much less prevalent than in the year previous, and that the 

 latter is scarcely ever met with. This decrease in the numbers 

 of gypsy moths, while due in some degree to the extreme 

 winter, may also be attributed to the thorough destructive 

 treatments by our most careful nurserymen. It is hoped that 

 Massachusetts nurserymen will take advantage of this existing 



