No. 4.] STATE NURSERY INSPECTOR. 361 



Interstate Shipments. 



Many thousand shipments of nursery stock from other 

 States are received in Massachusetts each year, and these 

 should be examined on arrival here in order to be certain 

 that the plants are such as should be allowed to enter the 

 State. A single complaisant official somewhere, willing for any 

 reason to overlook diseased or infested stock, can easily nullify 

 the most rigorous laws, and permit the transportation of 

 worthless stock in all directions, the sole check possible being 

 the examination of all stock at its point of destination. In- 

 spectors too often care far more about the condition of stock 

 entering the State than about that leaving it. The inspectors 

 in this State have tried to examine as much of the stock com- 

 ing in as possible, but the greater part of it comes just at the 

 time when every one is rushed to the limit to inspect imports. 

 Accordingly only occasional examination of interstate ship- 

 ments has been possible. This is unfortunate,, but the situa- 

 tion cannot be improved until larger appropriations are avail- 

 able, so that more inspectors can be employed. Till then, we 

 must learn of the condition of such shipments only by occa- 

 sional inspections, regarding these as samples of what we are 

 receiving. 



That poor stock may be received in this way is shown by 

 the fact, already stated in a previous report, that one fall 

 eleven of the first thirteen shipments examined from a given 

 State were rejected as unfit to enter Massachusetts. Later ship- 

 ments that year from that State were satisfactory. Further 

 comment is unnecessary. 



Imported Stock. 

 Every large area has its own native insect pests and plant 

 diseases. These are not in most cases confined to their native 

 territory because they cannot live elsewhere, but because they 

 have been unable to make their way to other suitable places, 

 or to find the proper food on arriving there. Formerly, the 

 establishment of an insect pest in a region far distant from its 

 native habitat was difficult, as its transportation consumed so 



