8 o 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
INSECT LAWS. 
State or National, Which?—Paper read by 
Hon. N. H. Albaugh before the American 
Association of Nurserymen at the 
Convention at St. Louis. 
Hon. N. H. Albaugh read the following paper at the St, 
Louis convention : 
“ When Frank R. Stockton wrote the ‘ Lady or the Tiger’ 
he propounded a most momentous question, and he, himself, 
feared to open the cabinets lest he make the mistake of his life, 
and be devoured by the ferocious brute. 
“ As nurserymen, we are in a similar quandary. While we 
would be delighted to open to the lady of beauty, and joy, 
and prosperity, and wealth, yet, with the appearance among 
trees of the most pernicious enemy of the century, we pause 
and inquire, before venturing, the ‘ Lady or the Tiger,” which? 
“ To be or not to be ’ was Hamlet’s most sublime soliloquy. 
To enact or not to enact, confronts us in part. I say in part, 
advisedly, for with the phenomenally wise acres who infest 
our legislative halls, ofter more destructive to the nurserymen 
or horticulturist’s best interest than the pernicious San Jose 
itself, we feel, as a profession, like flying to some vast wilder¬ 
ness, and giving up the ghost, sure enough. 
“ Maryland says ‘ put on your inspector’s certificate, and 
have that sealed with the seal of the Pentigraph ’ of the Mary¬ 
land State ‘ bugger,’ and all shall be smooth sailing, and it is, 
for Prof. Johnson is the right man in the right place. 
“ Virginia echoes ‘ me too ’ or words to that effect. Ohio 
says, township inspectors may ‘ set on ’ your case, and if you 
have the ‘itch,’ or in other words the scale, the old man will 
ask you for your little fine of from five to a hundred dollars. 
“ California uncorks its bottled wisdom and wrath, and after 
having inoculated ‘ we all ’ with the scale, and after sending 
us car loads on carloads of scaly fruit, and green and stomach- 
aching at that, suddenly takes a virtuous spell, and through 
its sagacious township ‘ bug inspectors ’ (who oft-times cannot 
distinguish between a tumble bug and a humbug), burns up 
our healthy trees to make room for its own inferior ones, from 
the home nurseries. 
“ Illinois tries to clap on a mustard plaster about as large as 
a bed quilt, in the shape of a bond and license law, to cover 
all foreigners, (as if Ohio and New York, which furnished the 
largest part of its intelligent population, were foreign coun¬ 
tries) and is going to compel Ellwanger & Barry or The A. N. 
& O. Co. to put up a thousand dollar bond, with native sucker 
securities, and a five dollar license, before they can, respec¬ 
tively, send a Crimson Rambler rose, or a Diamond peach 
tree to that immaculate state. 
“Verily, the cabinets have been unlocked, and the tiger is 
liable to spring out at any moment and devour somebody. If 
only it could be the wise horticultural solons of some state 
legislatures, it would be a God-send. 
“ The danger is truly great, yet that is no reason why a 
whole quart of nux vomica should be given at a single dose. 
“ In addition to fruit trees, this pernicious scale attacks 
nearly all kinds of ornamentals, including the elm, poplar, 
birch, chestnut, linden, Kilmarnock willow, roses and all sorts 
of shrubs, thus endangering parks, cemeteries and all public 
grounds. 
“ Eternal vigilance is said to be the price of liberty, and 
vigilence of a similar kind should actutate all intelligent, not to 
say honest nurserymen, who expect to keep themselves clear 
of the great pest. The nurseryman, or fruit grower, who will 
knowingly and willfully, for the sake of a few paltry dollars, 
send out infected stock, is a public felon and should be treated 
accordingly. The ignorant or careless one is scarcely less 
guilty. 
“ If the San Jose came and went as the ‘ ships that pass in 
the night ’ there might be some excuse, but he is a slow, as 
well as a villainous brute, and so can surely be circumvented 
by prompt and intelligent methods. True, he is not as deep 
as Mercutio’s well, nor as wide as a church door, nor as large 
as an elephant, but he is enough, he will serve. 
“ Nurserymen, too, are largely made to suffer for old and 
obsolete pests. 
“The San Jose scale has made everybody suspicious. The 
wooley aphis that went into Noah’s ark with the other 
animals has almost upset several deliveries of trees this spring. 
Indeed, in one case that I know of, a ‘ hullabaloo ’ was raised 
by customers on discovering on the branches of some nursery 
stock, the eggs of the katydid, which are as large, individually, 
as the scales on a good sized white fish, on the supposition 
that this row of scale-like eggs was the genuine San Jose. 
“ That the nurseryman and fruit culturist should be able, 
on sight, and even ‘ afar off,” to know the appearance of the 
San Jose, is almost absolutely necessary in order to be con¬ 
stantly on the alert to combat it. Several nurserymen, in my 
vicinity traveled many miles to see this insect upon orchards 
of all different varieties, and note its effect on each. Once 
seen and thoroughly examined, it is not easily, thereafter, mis¬ 
taken. Its spread is comparatively slow, and should and can 
be easily stamped out if taken in time. Given a year or two 
the start and your orchards and nurseries are ruined. 
“ The great variation and inconsistency of state laws is so 
confusing that nurserymen and fruit growers stand aghast and 
know not which way to turn. The remedies and preventives 
proposed, through entirely unskilled and uninformed officials, 
are more dangerous than the insect itself. Many of the state 
laws enacted, and sought to be enacted, are bunglesome, 
impracticable, unconstitutional, and worse than useless. 
“ But is nothing, therefore, to be done ? Not by any 
means. If all the state laws had a reasonable uniformity, 
there would be less cause for complaint, but such, unfortun¬ 
ately, is not the case. Again, township or local inspectors are 
nearly always inefficient, from lack of a reasonable knowledge 
of entomology, and develop into local autocrats and despots, 
who are far more dangerous than all the insect enemies put. 
together. 
“ If inspection must be had, (and itTooks as if that was the 
most rational thing to do), then in the name of all the saints 
at once, let the inspectors be learned men in their profession. 
One such inspection is worth more to horticulturists than a 
ten acre field full of local autocrats. 
“ A general national law seems absolutely necessary. Suita¬ 
ble inspectors could be appointed under it in the various states. 
The certificate of these men would be the ‘ sesame ’ to all fruit 
and plant trade, not to hinder sales and shipments, but to 
facilitate them, by previous examination of nursery and 
orchard. Infested trees do not come from an uninfested nur¬ 
sery ; scaly fruit does not come from an orchard free from 
scale, and right here, why should scaly fruit be shipped into a 
