122 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
Hn Common Council. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
Our state law does not require the filing of certificates with 
the state entomologist, but in order to avoid any unnecessary 
delay in the shipment of nursery stock that may be received 
in this state, where a certificate or tag may have been acci¬ 
dently removed, I have considered it good policy to have as 
many nurserymen as possible file their certificates with me in 
my office. This is done solely for the protection of nursery¬ 
men outside of the state doing business in this territory, and 
is not compulsory. 
W. J. Johnson, 
College Park, Md., Oct. 3d. State Entomologist. 
GROUP PHOTOGRAPHS. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
I would like to inquire if all members of the American As¬ 
sociation of Nurserymen who paid $1 for a photograph of the 
group of nurserymen who assembled at the court house in 
Omaha last June, received their pictures. I have been unable 
to get mine. 
Wellston, Mo., Oct. 16 , 1898 . Henry Wallis. 
NO INTERFERENCE IN VIRGINIA. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
As a great deal of unnecessary correspondence has come to 
me from New York State relating to the restrictions imposed 
by this state upon the sale and handling of nursery stock 
within its borders, I take this opportunity to ask you to state, 
through your journal, that no form of certificate of any sort 
is required to deal in nursery stock in this state. We have 
never interfered in the least with the transaction of nursery 
business, except where stock was known to be infested with 
San Jose scale. 
We do, so far as possible, prevent the handling of trees in¬ 
fested with San Jose scale, but this does not lead to the sup¬ 
position that every nurseryman’s premises are infested, and no 
restriction whatever is laid upon the free shipment of goods 
to any point in this state, unless from nurseries known to be 
infested. 
Wm. B. Alwood, 
Blacksburg, Va., Oct. 14th. State Inspector. 
NEW JERSEY NURSERYMEN’S RIGHTS. 
Editor National Nurseryman • 
In the October, 1898, Nurseryman you make an editorial 
statement on page 112, .that is not quite justified to its full 
extent; particularly in view of the comparisons that are made 
with the New York law on the subject of compensation. I 
always read the Nurseryman with a great deal of interest, and 
as soon as possible after its arrival, because it contains a point 
of view which it is important for me to get. Therefore I feel 
it a matter of some importance to put New Jersey at least 
straight on the subject of inspection, certificates and destruc¬ 
tion of nursery stock. 
The nurseryman in New Jersey has exactly the same rights 
and exactly the same duties on his own land that every other 
* farmer and fruit grower in the state has. He is put in no 
special position by reason of his business. He has a privilege 
that no other farmer or grower has, which consists in the right 
to call upon the state entomologist to examine his premises and 
to ascertain whether his stock is free from serious insect pests 
and diseases. If they are found to be free he has the right to 
demand a certificate to that effect. If his stock is infested he 
does not thereby lose, except in so far as the refusal of a cer¬ 
tificate may entail loss upon him. The entomologist can tell 
him he has scale, for instance, and that he can have no certifi¬ 
cate ; but he cannot tell him that he must destroy the stock. 
If the entomologist considers that the premises are so seriously 
infested as to be a menace to the neighborhood he can proceed 
against the owner exactly as he could proceed against the 
owner of any other infested orchard. 
We have made no provisions for compensation of any kind ; 
but on the other hand there has not been the slightest neces¬ 
sity, thus far, for compelling a man to destroy even a single 
tree. Wherever the necessity for it has existed, it has not 
been difficult to convince the grower that it was for his own 
benefit that the tree should be removed, and under the circum¬ 
stances he could, of course, have no just claim for compensa¬ 
tion. It is simply to clear up this question of compensation 
particularly with reference to the nurserymen that this com¬ 
munication is made. 
John B. Smith, 
New Brunswick, N. J., Oct. 6. State Entomologist. 
GIRDLING TREES. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
I have now been girdling fruit trees quite extensively for 
three years. The idea was suggested to me by the accidental 
girdling by a label wire which caused the girdled branch to 
produce fruit. At first I only expected to cause early bearing 
and thus enable me to test the size and quality of fruit pro¬ 
duced by the thousands of new seedlings on trial ; but now I 
expect also to test the hardiness of the trees at the same time. 
Tenacity of life is measured by the amount of injury that an 
animal or plant can receive and still live and in-thecaseof 
the tree it seems fortunate that we are now able to inflict in¬ 
jury by girdling to any desired degree and obtain results in a 
year instead of waiting indefinitely for the injury to come 
through the effects of a very cold winter or a very dry summer. 
There is still another great advantage to be gained. We 
can bridge over the off year to some extent. So in every fruit¬ 
ful season if we spray with something to kill the fruit blossoms 
(I suggest salt) or remove the fruit and girdle, we may reason¬ 
ably expect a crop the next season. The best method seems 
to be what I call the spiral method. I start in with a saw 
just below the limbs and cutting to the wood go down around 
the tree at an angle of forty-five degrees. If we would make 
the test very severe go twice around. This is not likely to 
permanently injure a hardy tree and a tender tree in this 
climate may as well be killed and out of the way. On trees 
and limbs an inch or less in diameter I use a knife instead of 
the saw. I have many varieties of young trees that have been 
girdled for three years in succession that are now doing well 
whilst a few other varieties have been killed by girdling once. 
I believe that when girdling is well understood and judiciously 
practiced there will be millions in it for the people and I 
advise very close planting of orchards and girdling after two 
