The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyright, 1901, by the National Nurseryman Publishing Co. 
• “ My father at 81 is still planting trees.” — Phof. L. H. Bailey. 
Vol. IX. ROCHESTER, N. Y., AUGUST. 1901. No. I 
VIRGINIA REGULATIONS. 
Information of Importance to Nurserymen Doing Business In That 
State—Stock Shipped Into Virginia Must Bear Certificate of 
Inspection and a Special Tag—Why This Provision Has 
Been Found Necessary—Woolly Aphis and Gall. 
The following has been issued by the Virginia State Board 
of Crop-Pest Commissioners from the office of the State Ento¬ 
mologist and Pathologist, at Blacksburg, Va., under date of 
June 13, 1901: 
Important to Nurserymen —The enforcement of the Viginia Crop- 
Pest laws has given rise to some confusion and annoyance to nursery¬ 
men in other states who do business in this state. This has been 
occasioned generally by the failure on the part of these nurserymen to 
observe the provisions of our laws and regulations, which require that 
each package of nursery stock shall bear a proper certificate of inspec¬ 
tion, and, in addition, a special tag provided from this office. Some 
nurserymen have seen fit to take strong exception to these require¬ 
ments, and one nurseryman in particular (though meeting with no 
obstacle whatever in his business in this state), has loudly proclaimed 
and published his opposition to the position we have taken. Hence I 
think best to state in this circular our position, trusting that it will 
lead to mutual understanding. 
This state is unfortunately seriously infested with San Jose scale, 
and with slight exception the trouble is traceable to nursery stock com¬ 
ing from other states. Only a small amount of nursery stock grown 
in this state has ever been found to be infested and at present there is 
practically none. Our control is so rigid that the state nurseries are as 
free from suspicion as it is possible to be in a state having orchards 
infested with the scale. Every year since the passage of the first 
inspection law, the scale has been shipped into this state from outside 
our borders, on stock bearing a regular certificate of inspection. This 
is not stated to discredit any one’s work, but it does show that there is 
either carelessness or dishonesty, when the same thing occurs repeat¬ 
edly from the same nursery. Now, here is the point in a nutshell: If 
we make a regulation that all stock bearing an official certificate may 
enter this state, what recourse have we in the case of infested stock 
coming into our state under such certificate ? None ; unless we wish 
to make a lot of trouble and bring the offending nurseryman before the 
public notice. But if this nurseryman must have our official tag on his 
stock, we have a short and simple method, viz.: to recall the official 
cards. If these should be refused, of course we would resort to 
publicity. 
The above fairly explains our purpose in requiring the use of an 
official tag from this office. This regulation was not adopted from 
choice, but from necessity. And I wish to state that we have found 
it necessary to withdraw our tags the past yaar. In one instance in 
mind, the official certificate of inspection remained in force regardless 
of this fact. It seems to me that any person familiar with the subject, 
ought to appreciate our position and not push this matter by irrelevant 
talk until it leads to serious quarreling and bickering. 
Further, it is objected that we require inspection against woodly 
aphis, and an objector dramatically proposes to swear the the nurserey- 
men present at a certain convention, as to whether or not they have this 
louse on their premises. Certainly we know that practically every 
one has it. And we further know from abundant experience that it is 
one of the most serious pests to young orchards in this state. We do 
not expect any one to certify that his premises are free from this pest, 
but we do expect that the stock shipped shall be free from the knotted 
roots and living specimens of the louse, and hereafter we shall seize 
and destroy nursery stock carrying these knots or the living lice. You 
may ask, “IIow is one to comply with such a regulation?” By reject¬ 
ing the plants showing knotted roots, and fumigating to destroy the lice. 
After five years’ experience, we can positively state that fumigation 
is a perfectly safe and sure method of destroying the woolly aphis, 
and that as a precaution against San Jose Scale in suspicious districts, 
it is invaluable. It must, however, be properly done, and cannot be 
left to the whims and caprices of ordinary laborers. I have planted 
trees encrusted with this scale, which had been given one fumigation, 
and during three years’ observation was unable to find a single living 
scale. 
This year we shall add crown gall to the list of troubles against 
which nursery stock must be inspected. 
We have hesitated to place official ban upon the woolly aphis and 
the crown gall, but our practical observation in the young orchards 
demonstrates that these troubles are fatal to a large number of the trees 
at an early date, and that trees so affected can not be relied upon to 
produce a good orchard; hence we are ready to bear the responsibility 
of the regulation. 
I do not believe that with honorable nurserymen it has simply 
become a questian of selling so many trees to secure a profit therefrom, 
but that they will be willing to bear the burdens of just regulations, 
so that the orchard industry may flourish, and not be utterly wiped 
out in large sections of our country. No man honors more than I this 
splendid class of men who have done so much to built up our fruit 
interests! 
A word as to how we have administered our state laws in case of 
error or negligence on the part of the shippers, may be appropriate. 
I could cite a string of cases of this sort, and whenever the nurseryman 
has appealed to us, if he was known in our office, and had not previously 
shipped diseased stock, we at once secured entry for his goods by 
telegraph, if the point of detention was given us. If not, we furnished 
him with all haste, the proper tags. There should, however, be no 
further occasion of oversight to secure tags in advance. 
No man can justly charge us with a desire to interfere with free 
commerce between the states, and as to the importance of securing 
uniform national regulations for such troubles, I was the first man in 
the East to propose this step, and as chairman of the legislative and 
executive committees of the Washington convention of March 5th, 1897, 
I ihink my position is well known to the fruit-growers and nurserymen 
of America. I still stand squarely on the position taken at Washington 
in 1897, and at the Nurserymen’s Convention in St. Louis in June of 
the same year. We are in need of uniform, sane regulations which can 
be strictly enforced by men competent to judge of these troubles. 
Unfortunately in the meantime state officers acting under state laws 
are obliged at times to take positions that may seem unwarranted and 
severe. This is because we know that there are grave faults in some 
of the inspection work which we are called upon to accept, and as we 
can not appeal to a central authority to control this, we must unwill¬ 
ingly put up the bars alike against all. 
The following primary requirements must be complied with in 
certificates of inspection before they will be accepted in this office: 
1st. The date on which the inspection wuis made. (Inspections made 
before July 1st of each current year will not be accepted.) 
2d. The name of the person or persons who make the inspection 
must appear in the certificate. 
3d. The certificate must certify that the stock is apparently free 
from San Jose scale and other dangerously injurious insects, pests, and 
plant diseases 
4th. It will be the policy of this office to accept only certificates 
which show that the examination has been made by a person or persons 
