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THIRTY-FOCRTH FRriT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



Lest there be those present who do not understand the nature of 

 these certificates, I might explain that about thirty of our states have 

 passed laws Avhich require a certificate of inspection to be attached to 

 each shipment of nursery stock sent into such states. About ten of 

 these states also require a certificate of fumig-ation. Several states 

 accept the latter (if in the form of an affidavit) in lieu of the inspection 

 certificate. 



About seven states, including California, do not require these certifi- 

 cates, seven states and territories have no state laws. Xow, the state- 

 ments made in these certificates vary greatly in the different states. 

 The different laws are just as variable in their requirements, according 

 with their fears of this pest or that, few or many. ^loreover, the 

 methods used in the different states in making the inspections upon 

 which these certificates are based, and upon which their true value 

 must very larg:ely depend, are still more valuable. A government or 

 state entomologist makes the inspections and signs the certificates. 

 In most states, the inspections are made chiefly for the discovery of 

 San Jose scale: some attention being given to woolly aphis and to 

 crown gall, little attention being given to any other kinds of infection, 

 and only when the infections named are very bad are any stocks con- 

 demned. A few states have sufficient numbers of inspectors to make 

 careful examinations of stocks, but in many states a single inspection 

 officer has to cover all the nurseries of his state in from thirty to 

 ninety days, once in each year, and all he need certify is that the 

 stocks appear to be free from infection. Now, if any one of you 

 Southern California inspectors, who are in the habit of spending weeks 

 in the inspection of stocks from single nurseries, can imagine yourself 

 examining all the nursery and florists' stocks in the State of California 

 in sixty days, you can easily understand how little value would attach 

 to your certificate in which you would state that you had inspected the 

 stock in any given shipment, and it appeared to be free from infec- 

 tions. Florists* stocks are constantly being sent into California from 

 many states bearing inspection certificates, but are, in many cases, 

 found to be infested with various pests dangerous to our fruit industries 

 here. 



Our climatic conditions are such that many insect pests which can 

 thrive only in the greenhouses of those states, may find ideal conditions 

 here out in the open with almost endless variety of host plants ready for 

 their attack. Ahyrodes cif)'i, for instance, the dreaded Florida white 

 fly. is now known to infest many greenhouses in the Atlantic and 

 Southern States, and this pest may come to us in any of the thousands 

 of shipments entering our State from those greenhouses, as the cer- 

 tificates attached give no assurance of careful or recent inspection. 

 Strict quarantine measures are now directed against Florida and 

 Louisiana only. I believe that a strict .quarantine should be adopted 

 and enforced by California against the importation of any and all 

 nursery and florists' stocks from without her borders. We can, and 

 should, grow all such stocks which we require. I am reliably informed 

 that the Department of Agriculture at Washington is seeking to 

 regulate all inspections and shipments of nursery and florists' stocks 

 throughout the states by uniform and effectual laws. We should lose 

 no opportunity to urge such enactments. However, by far the larger 



