ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE 

 NURSERY INSPECTOR. 



To the State Board of Agriculture. 



I have the honor to submit herewith the eleventh annual 

 report of the State jSTursery Inspector. 



A year ago the conditions and requirements of the in- 

 spection work were presented quite fully, showing how it 

 had developed and changed during the decade since its estab- 

 lishment. It indicated that both funds and the law were 

 inadequate to meet the conditions existing, that changes were 

 necessary, and that the time had come for a revision of the 

 law in many ways, and for an appropriation sufficient to 

 carry out its provisions. These facts were presented to the 

 Legislature and a new law was enacted covering these points. 

 It only remains to present here a statement of the work of 

 the year 1912 and of new features which have developed. 



Inspection of the Growing Nursery Stock. — This portion 

 of the work has changed but little in the last few years. Its 

 purpose is to prevent stock, infested by insects or diseases 

 liable to kill or seriously injure it, being sold to persons not 

 familiar with them, who would therefore be the losers. As 

 such stock sold outside the State is subject to the require- 

 ments of the States where it goes, and as the States all have 

 laws designed to protect their residents from purchasing bad 

 stock, such an inspection as meets the requirements of other 

 States is necessary to enable our nurserymen to do business 

 there. Inspection of this kind, therefore, not only protects 

 the people of Massachusetts in their purchases, but is also 

 an essential to the nursery business. 



This inspection is not easy to make. To find and recog- 

 nize 20 or more different insects and diseases in any stage, 

 at sight, requires special training and some field experience. 



