82 



or not. ^o\Y, while, as I stated, we liave no laws to sustain us, we have 

 a strong public sentiment in our favor, quite sufficient to influence the 

 honorable to favor our i:)lans, and the others we can whip into line, so to 

 speak, hj working on their interests. While we have not come out of 

 this contest just in the shape that I wish we had, we have certainly 

 placed our i:)rofession on a better footing and shown that we have a 

 power to do for right and justice; that we can help the deserving and 

 at the same time deal firmly and judiciously with the undeserving 

 and disreputable; and so long as we are faithful to our trust we shall 

 be able not only to hold our influence but greatly increase the same. 



I confidently look for considerable aid from nurserymen themselves 

 in the matter of preventing the distributing of orchard pests. The 

 most pushing and energetic are beginning to see that it will pay to 

 spray their trees year after year in the nursery row with both insecti- 

 cides and fungicides; that by so doing they will get a better growth 

 and consequently a larger number of first-class trees that will bring a 

 better return for use of their land and labor. Kow, these are not likely 

 to be so blind as not to see that to be able to warrant their stock fjee 

 from insect and fungus enemies will give them a- i)restige, and they 

 will thus guarantee every bundle of stock that is shipped from their 

 grounds. When we reach this stage of advancement it will be a small 

 matter to get a United States law that will make this a condition of 

 acceptance for transportation by the railway and express companies. 



In the past our advice and cautions have been more or less ignored, 

 but I think if a nurseryman were about to import trees or bring them 

 from California he would think to consult the United States entomolo- 

 gist in regard to the risk he would run with respect to injurious insects. 

 And there is little doubt that there will be much more caution exer- 

 cised in future than there has been in the j)ast, and the next new thing 

 we get we shall be better i)repared to exert our power and influence 

 than we were In this case. I am satisfied that the San Jose scale can 

 be stamped out where it has been introduced, at least between the 

 Eocky and Alleghany mountains. East of this area it will have to 

 be exterminated or else many nurseries will be compelled to suspend 

 business for lack of customers, and they are not going to do this in 

 the near future. We have done well this time, but we will do better 

 in the future. 



Note. — The fluted scale of the oj-ange [Icerya purcUasi)^ though it has 

 been subjugated in California, at a saving of thousands, if, indeed, not 

 millions, of dollars (and the importation of the natural enemies whereby 

 this was accomplished was the greatest achievement ever attained in 

 practical entomology), has yet to be exterminated. So of the gypsy 

 moth {Ocneria dispar), introduced into Massachusetts by a lamentalfle 

 piece of carelessness on the part of an entomologist many years ago, 

 while it has been overcome in some localities, has not been extermi- 



