FLORIDA /STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
out any provision for inspection. The 
states to which we ship from 50 to 75 per 
cent, of our stock, nearly all of them re¬ 
quiring inspection, are now closed to us, 
because our stock is not inspected and we 
have no way of getting it. Don’t you see 
that the nurserymen are anxious to have 
a law? 
The law that has been proposed by 
your committee carries with it an appro¬ 
priation so large that I am afraid that it 
would never pass. You know there are a 
bunch of legislators who go to Talla¬ 
hassee every year who are called “watch 
dogs of the treasury,” and if a matter 
involved a considerable amount of money, 
they would fight it, no matter how much 
merit it might have. 
The nurserymen could not wait for 
that law to pass, and, besides, there was 
a possibility of its not passing, so we got 
together and formulated a law, on the 
same lines as some of the most effective 
laws of the country. It places in the 
hands of the Board of Control, who have 
the management of the University and 
the Experiment Station, the power to 
formulate the rules and regulations 
covering the inspection. 
Now, if the measure which this Board 
of Control wish to enforce upon the nur¬ 
serymen is not sufficiently stringent, the 
objection can be laid before them and the 
measure made stronger. 
There are features of this law which 
are impracticable. We have a great many 
people who believe in the natural enemies 
for the insect pests. I am one of these. 
We spent thousands of dollars in spray¬ 
ing a large peach orchard. The following 
year we introduced the fungi into the or¬ 
chard at less than one-tenth the cost of 
171 
the spraying, and the fungi were more 
effective. One feature of this law re¬ 
quires that every tree over a year old 
should be sprayed with lime, sulphur and 
salt, and do you know the results to the 
fungi ? 
We nurserymen want a law which will 
protect against the importation and dis¬ 
semination of insect pests, and I believe 
the bill that has been passed favorably 
by committees of the House and the Sen¬ 
ate provides this protection. 
The measure Mr. Gillette mentioned, I 
think you will find a law already on the 
statute books which partially or wholly 
covers it; that is, if a man knowingly sells 
trees that are untrue to name, you can 
get him with laws already on the statute 
books. If he does not know it, you can¬ 
not convict him before a jury. Further 
than that, you cannot prosecute a man 
after two or three years, and by the time 
you find out that the trees are untrue to 
name, the time has elapsed and you can¬ 
not get him anyhow. 
We have a law now before us in the 
legislature which will provide the nur¬ 
serymen with the inspection which they 
must have, and which will protect the. 
horticultural interests against a careless 
nurseryman who might import diseases, 
and against the nurseryman from outside 
the state, according to the rules that your 
Board of Control may see fit to place up¬ 
on the nurserymen and the transportation 
companies. 
How many of us remember a few years 
ago, we were sure that certain diseases 
and insects were going to put us out of 
business entirely? We do not think near¬ 
ly as seriously of them today. The scien¬ 
tific knowledge acquired of them has en- 
