22 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
The National N urseryman. 
C. L. YATES, Proprietor. RALPH T, OLCOTT, Editor. 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., 
305 Cox Building, Rochester, N. Y. 
The only trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers in Nursery Stock of 
all kinds. It circulates througfhout the United States and Canada. 
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN. 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES. 
One year, in advance, _____ $1.00 
Six Months, ______ .-75 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance, - - - 1.50 
Six Months, “ “ _ _ _ 1.00 
Advertising rates will be sent upon application. Advertisements 
should reach this office by the 20th of the month previous to the date 
of issue. 
Payment in advance required for foreign advertisements. 
dt^^Drafts on New York or postal orders, instead of checks, are 
requested. 
Correspondence from all points and articles of interest to nursery¬ 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Entered in the Pont Office at Rochester, as second-class matter. 
Rochester, N. Y., March, 1897. 
THE SAN JOSE SCALE. 
The production and sale of nursery stock has progressed 
through all the discussion of the danger of the spreading of the 
San Jose scale. There is not a horticultural publication, not 
an experiment station, that has not presented the case of this 
pest in more or less extended form. It has been illustrated 
and described in print and upon the horticultural platform from 
coast to coast, and to-day it occupies the chief place in the list 
of insects which threaten the fruit interests generally. 
Until lately the nurserymen were content to look on and 
and take but a passing glance at the discussion which appeared 
to affect only those in certain sections of the country. Last 
year many articles were written in an endeavor to prove that 
the scale would not extend to the northern central states be¬ 
cause of the climate, and that the inspection and treatment of 
nurseries on the Middle Atlantic coast where it had appeared 
had probably removed all danger. 
At the Chicago meeting of the American Association of 
Nurserymen last June attention was called to the laws just 
passed by Virginia and Maryland and although there was a 
disposition to let the nurserymen of those states handle the 
question of repeal or modification of such laws by themselves, 
the developments of the fall packing season showed that the 
state entomologists of Virginia and Maryland were alive to the 
importance of the subject and that the earnestness which had 
characterized the movements of the Pacific coast states in this 
matter was equaled by the two eastern states mentioned. 
It was shown in the last issue of this journal that the scale 
was in Illinois. And now it is reported by no less an authority 
than Professor H. E. VanDeman that it is causing much alarm 
in Ohio and Michigan, two of the leading fruit producing 
states in the Union. For some time it has been known that 
the scale has overrun Long Island. Secretary J. Cole Doughty, 
of the Jewell Nursery Co., Lake City, Minn., in his report to 
the Minnesota Horticultural Society, of the annual meeting of 
of the Illinois Horticultural Society, published in the Minne¬ 
sota Horticulturist for February says : 
In closing the report I cannot refrain from calling the attention of 
this society to a danger that menaces us and threatens to destroy and 
render abortive all the advance we have made in horticulture in the 
past twenty-five years. We have an enemy at our doors so insidious 
that only the utmost care and vigilance will avert disaster. I refer to 
the San Jose scale. Professor Forbes, the state entomologist of Illinois, 
made an exhaustive report to the state horticultural society, knowdng 
that eastern nurseries infected with this disease had made over 150 
shipments to parties in Illinois that he could trace and how many other 
shipments of infected trees and plants is, of course, unknown. He 
said that “no danger equal to this, no calamity of equal proportion 
has ever threatened the fruit products of the state.” The necessity for 
prompt and energetic action w'as so manifest that a committee was ap¬ 
pointed to draft and present to the legislature of the state of Illinois 
“ a bill for the control of injuries to fruits, etc.” 
Every intelligent person who has tried to secure an orchard or small 
fruit plant in this climate will agree that we already have obstacles 
sufficient to contend with without having to fight this insect. The 
most severe blight is but a summer dream as compared to the San Jose 
scale. It infests all kinds of vegetation. Forest trees, shrubs, and 
vines and even our most common grasses are subject to its ravages; 
but the chief danger is to our fruit trees, small freiits, roses and orna¬ 
mental stock. It is so small as to escape observation except by the 
most careful search; is is so prolific in its increase that it soon 
spreads over a large area, adhering to anything with which it comes in 
contact, and. finally, it is so difficult to exterminate that no effectual 
method has been found to dispose of it except to burn the infected 
wood. Neither heat nor cold, sunshine or storm, has any affect upon 
it, so far as discovered, and it will come to us so surely as wm live un¬ 
less prompt and vigorous measures are taken to prevent its introduction. 
We can, how’ever, keep it oxit for a fraction of the expenditure that 
w’ill be required to eradicate it after it once gets in. Legislation to 
prevent its entering the state can be secured and enforced a great deal 
easier and cheaper than w'e can legislate laws for the destruction of our 
farmer’s orchards and gardens, even though we compensate them for 
the loss. 
Do not for a moment delude yourselves with the idea that this is a 
bugaboo or a false note of alarm. Had you heard the report and dis¬ 
cussion at the Illinois State Horticultural Society meeting, you would 
all agree that prevention is far cheaper and surer than any remedy for 
the extermination of the San Jose scale. 
We present in other columns the results of the investigations 
by Victor H. Lowe of the New York State Experiment Station 
at Geneva, and Professor M. V. Slingerland of the Cornell Ex¬ 
periment Station, at Ithaca, N. Y., both of which show that 
the greatest danger of disseminating the scale is through the 
shipment of nursery stock. 
All of these facts indicate plainly that no longer can the 
nurserymen take but a passing interest in the discussion of this 
important subject. Twelve states have already passed phyto- 
pathological laws of some sort California, Washington and 
Maryland have general laws covering all cases. Virginia re¬ 
cently added a San Jose scale law to her stringent law regard¬ 
ing peach yellows. In the other states black knot and peach 
yellows are the diseases against which the barrier is raised. 
And now the legislatures of Illinois and Minnesota are being 
asked to bar out nursery stock infested with the scale, and 
other states are sure to follow. 
The matter is to be carried again to congress, the state en¬ 
tomologist of Virginia having prepared a bill providing for 
inspection and destruction, when necessary, of all stock in any 
state, found infested with San Jose scale. This is one of the 
