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AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
prove more than the stock itself? An inspector does not need to go over a 
nursery many times before lie will know as much, or more, about its con- 
dition than tlie owner himself. Besides it is possible for an entomologist 
to learn more about stock that a nurseryman purchases in another state 
than either the grower or the buyer may themselves know. In short, if the 
growers will be honest in the information given an inspector, in regard to 
the source from whence they receive their buds and cuttings, they will add 
very materially to the value of their certificates, and make the labor of the 
inspector far less arduous and much more satisfactory to all parties inter* 
ested. This course will pay in more ways than one. 
For myself, I have always held that if nurserymen are to be kept under 
surveillance, they should also have the right to demand that the country 
about them shall also be kept above suspicion. A law that affects only the 
nursery row, and not the adjacent orchards and grounds in the vicinity, 
is only, to a limited degree, what it should be, and I would give little for a 
certificate that does not include the word premises. It is here that fumiga- 
tion has its chief value, if properly done, but if not properly done it is worth- 
less. But to substitute fumigation for inspection, will be only to make mat- 
ters worse, instead of better. There must be both in order to get the greatest 
benefit. As nurserymen know each other pretty well, further explanation 
is unnecessary. 
The nurseryman is both a scientist and a business man. His “art does 
but mend nature;” but he must buy as well as grow and sell. None but the 
smallest local concerns can do otherwise. He must of necessity mix the- 
purcliased stock with that of his own growing, and thus his stock will rep- 
resent not only his caution or carelessness, as the case may be, but that 
of his fellows generally. Fumigating, carefully done, will reduce his danger 
from this source. 
Occasionally I have seen such reasoning as this; if the San Jose scale is 
found on my stock, I can throw the responsibility on the inspector, who dare 
not say on oath that it was not present, and overlooked by him in his in- 
spection. Just so! But, as I have previously stated, the premises are there 
to show the actual condition. Stock may go into the trade and become 
mixed so that it can never be recognized, but the letter files of the inspec- 
tor, if brought into court, will often clear up a vast amount of obscurity, 
affording unexpected help for the innocent, but equally unexpected retribu- 
tion for the dishonest and guilty. Be straighforward and use your best 
efforts to keep clear of suspicious stock. If the inspector is incompetent or 
careless, see that he suffers the consequences,, for he of all men has no busi- 
ness to be either the one or the other. 
The value of a certificate of nursery inspection, then, will depend upon 
the efficiency of the inspector, and the use that is made of the document 
In the hands of the nurseryman. Its reliability will increase year after 
year until it will indicate almost, or quite, the exact conditions of the permises 
of the party to whom it is given. If nursery inspection and certificates are 
in disrepute, it is because nurserymen of that character have made them so. . 
There are pleuty of honest nurserymen in the country, and entomologists 
are doing their best to carry out their duties, faithfully, and with full con- 
fidence in each other, and I cannot see why nursery inspection and the 
entomologist’s certificate of such, should not serve every legitimate purpose 
for which it is intended. There is in every profession, or calling a disrepu- 
table element, aDd it is to the better classes that we have always to look for 
