THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
77 
PLEA FOR CLEAN STOCK . 
S. M. Emery’s Paper Prepared for the Chicago Convention —Ex. 
perlences of an Experiment Station Director Who Was Form¬ 
erly a Nurseryman — Thinks Canada Acted Wisely—He 
Says That Eternal Vigilance Is the Price of Safety. 
S. M. Emery, director of the experiment station at Boze¬ 
man, Mont., prepared the following paper for the Chicago 
convention of the American Association of Nurserymen* 
under the title : “The Duty of the Nurserymen in Eradicat¬ 
ing Fruit Tree Pests 
A year ago in a talk to this august body, you were told that 
Montana orchards were clean and that please God steps would 
be taken at the coming session of the legislature to keep them 
so, if such could be accomplished by legislation. Senate Bill 
No. 12 being the fourth signed by Governor Smith created a 
State Board of Horticulture for Montana, consisting of five 
members with the governor as ex-officio and the sixth mem¬ 
ber. These board members must be residents of the district 
they are chosen to represent and cannot under the law be 
nurserymen or men interested in the sale of nursery stock. 
Last November it was my privilege to attend the annual 
meeting of directors at Washington, D. C. As horticulturist 
of the Montana Station I was principally interested in the sec¬ 
tion devoted to horticulture and the sessions were attended 
very regularly. I may say that their sessions as were yours in 
Omaha last June, were quite largely devoted to discussions of 
existing insect pests, legislation pertaining thereto and 
remedial measures. 
INSPECTION METHODS. 
I came out of both of these meetings convinced that the 
whole system of inspection as then enforced over the most of 
the country was a screaming farce. Men talked of driving out 
from college duties in the afternoons, crossing a fence, walk¬ 
ing down through the nursery rows taking a casual glance at 
the stock and writing a certificate, which states that apparently 
the grounds and stock are free from insects or fungus pests. 
Upon these worthless certificates millions of trees are annually 
sold and the customers with them, and without doubt these 
very worthless certificates are placed in evidence as good and 
sufficient cause for justifying any man in dealing with the firm 
thus inspected. 
You may be sure that the candid opinion of the man who 
has honestly and conscientiously looked into these matters, is 
never quoted while the sale is being affected. Under just 
such laws pests are being disseminated quite as rapidly as it is 
possible for them to be. 
This body, if I may be allowed to express my mind clearly, 
is not rising to the occasion. There is altogether “ too much 
or too little Kentuck ” about it (vide address of Hon. H. H. 
Albaugh in ’98, Omaha), depending from the point of view. 
Upon the nurserymen of the United States must depend in 
large part the extirpation of these pests, even as it has been 
through them so terrible a foot-hold has been gained. Instead 
of wasting time in assuming that much of the recent legisla¬ 
tion enacted is for the purpose of the prevention of the sale of 
nursery stock, why not credit the promoters of such legislation 
with a disposition to improve conditions and to control these 
terrible pests, for terrible they are, much as their importance 
has been belittled. For example the San Jose scale introduced 
but a little over a decade ago has made its unwelcome entrance 
into thirty-five states and territories and it is safe to say will 
soon be in all of them unless the nurserymen arise to the 
occasion and stamp it out. How may this best be accom¬ 
plished ? In Montana the assumption is taken that every 
bundle of trees put on the market is pest full and it is on this 
assumption that our board proceeds. Quarantine stations 
have been established on the various lines of railway entering 
the state, as nearly at state lines as it is possible to locate. 
In two instances, Missoula and Billings, which are prominent 
junction rail points and the seat of orchard activity it is pro¬ 
posed to make a clearing house for shippers and to there 
provide needful appliances so that all stock coming there for 
farther distribution or planting in the immediate territory 
thereto tributary, can be fumigated with hydro-cyanic. The 
time is coming, it is near at hand, when the treatment house 
will be as much a part of the outfit of each prominent ener¬ 
getic nurserymen as is the packing house or the cold storage 
cellar. It does not, it will not answer to trust to incidental 
inspection of orchards and nurseries. It must be taken for 
granted that every tree and plant coming onto a packing 
ground is infested and that the only safe and proper course to 
pursue is to subject it after being packed to such a chemical 
or vaporial bath as will exterminate everything thereon detri¬ 
mental to the health and well-being of the article. It is so 
much easier to stand back and damn the other fellow for open¬ 
ing up this pandoras box of insect evils, than it is to right 
manfully pull your coats and go at it hammer and tongs to 
exterminate the pests. True, it is, that there are many old 
orchards which are the breeding grounds of pests and that to 
handle these is a herculean task, and that if noxious insects 
are not destroyed therein, new plantings will be speedily 
destroyed. Very true, but there is no more potent argument 
than the pocket-book of the individual. You as nurserymen 
are not banking upon old orchards for an existence. True, 
there are occasional orchards owned by nurserymen, but your 
interest is in the new unset orchards, and it is there where your 
future business prosperity lies, and your best card is to send 
out only clean stock hereafter. 
EARLY EXPERIENCE WITH GALL. 
I well remember in’83 going to Geneva to buy goods. I 
found the stock desired, and while on the packing grounds I 
noted some singular galls or excrescences upon the roots of 
some very choice apple stock. I questioned as to what it was 
and was told that as young trees, the woolly aphis had stung 
the roots, but that it had not hurt them at all. With the 
broader experience of after life I could then have known that 
there was not nearly the gall manifested upon the innocent 
apple roots that there was in the man who assured me that 
this was a trifling matter and not to be considered. Now, 
such stock would be classed as double extra suspicious and 
would not be tolerated under any circumstances. Formerly 
many trees were planted in the broad West, which had but an 
ephemeral existence, they were dug, delivered and died, much 
as the corpse of the man which was lying in state in his coffin 
prior to the funeral proper. He had not been a bright and 
shining mark or exemplification of all that was pure and good 
and holy in his daily work. Unknown to the friends, a wag 
who knew him well, slipped onto the coffin lid a card bearing 
the three letters D. D. D. Some one said he did not dream 
that “ Mr. So and So,” was a double doctor of divinity. “ He 
