The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyright, 1901, by the National Nurseryman Publishing Co. 
“ No longer can the nurseryman do an indiscrimate business." —Prof. Bailey. 
Vol. IX. ROCHESTER, N. Y., SEPTEMBER, 1901. No. 9. 
NURSERY LEGISLATION 
Discussed at Convention of Southern Association by Professor 
Sherman of North Carolina - Believes That Should San Jose 
Scale Become Extinct There Would Still Be Need for 
Nursery Inspection Laws —A Thoughtful Address. 
At the annual convention of the Southern Nurserymen’s As¬ 
sociation, at Asheville, N. C., July 16th, the following paper on 
“ Some Thoughts on Nursery Legislation ” was read by Pro¬ 
fessor Franklin Sherman, Jr., state entomologist for North 
Carolina: 
Within the last few years many states have enacted laws that affect 
the fruit trees and nursery stock. In some cases the laws of the differ¬ 
ent states are so different, that considerable loss has sometimes resulted 
to the nurseryman. An imperfect understanding of the laws of any 
one state may result in the delay of a shipment of stock, thereby caus¬ 
ing a direct loss to the grower, and indirectly to the nurseryman. 
The main factor in bringing about all this legislation is the San Jose 
scale. But, while it has been mainly instrumental in bringing these 
laws into effect, it is my belief that, should the scale now perish from 
the face of the earth, nursery inspection laws would still be in order, 
and, for one, I should favor them. The systematic inspection of nur¬ 
series has revealed to us a number of insects and diseases that were not 
so well understood by the fruit grower or nurseryman a few years ago. 
In times past a fruit grower might simply say that his orchard 
“ didn’t do well ” or “ many of the trees died,” but now the careful 
grower will tell you that his peach trees are “hurt by borers ” or his 
apple trees are attacked by “leaf rust.” Growers are becoming more 
careful and are investigating more and more to determine with absolute 
accuracy the cause of every failure in the orchard. This is a good 
sign, and is to be commended. This close application to details has 
resulted in bringing us to more fully appreciate the losses that we 
suffer every year. 
We are now ready to believe the estimate made some years ago, that 
insects commit depredations on the agricultural interest in this country 
to the extent of over $800,000,000 annually. Of this the San Jose scale 
is responsible only for a small per cent. Nursery inspection, therefore, 
though called into effect mainly to check this scale has, like many 
other of our institutions, expanded, and we now recognize it to be 
benefit aside from all consideration of this insect. 
The speaker is not one of those who maintain that this scale is a 
“ blessing in disguise.” We have seen too much of the havoc wrought 
by it in this and other states. It is a pest to be avoided with the great¬ 
est care, and, when discovered, should be fought with energy and per¬ 
severance. We do believe, however, that the agitation of the scale 
problem has awakened fruit growers, as they were never before, to the 
ravages that their orchards suffer through insects and disease. This 
awakening is not to be called a “scare,” but rather a “reform”—a 
reform from the old neglectful methods once practiced to a method 
which brings into play all of one’s talent and skill, accompanied by the 
four primary operations in successful orcharding, namely, tillage, fer¬ 
tilization, pruning and spraying. 
We consider the pest to be indeed a curse in every orchard where it 
becomes established, but, leaving the pest itself out of the reckoning 
we think that the agitation has been a blessing, and it had been a bene¬ 
fit to both the grower and the nurseryman. This pest is not yet (so 
far as we know) so thoroughly disseminated over the country as to be 
a very important factor in the total yearly production of fruit In 
this state we have been agitating the question with considerable energy 
during the past year, yet at this writing we only know of the existence 
of this pest in twelve postoffice localities in this state. It is true that 
these localities are scattered from Wilmington in the east to beyond 
Asheville in the west, but when we consider that there are more than 
2,800 postoffice localities in the state, we see that the infestation, so far 
as determined, is small, including less than one-half of one per cent, of 
the localities of the state. Let it not be forgotten, however, that this 
is a small matter only by comparison, for with each grower whose 
orchard is affected the question is as serious as if the whole state were ' 
in the same condition. 
And it is not for us to wait for the pest to become more widely dis¬ 
tributed before taking the matter in hand. The fact that its rate of 
spread is slow is one of the very reasons why we should be energetic 
in our measures against it, for our chances of successfully fighting it 
will be correspondingly greater—and the fact that its distribution to 
new, distant localities, it is mainly dependent on the transportation of 
infested plants, at once shows that with a well-administered system of 
nursery inspection and control, we may do a great deal to keep the 
insect from new localities. We cannot expect to exterminate this pest 
in this state, and not from localities, except in especially favorable cir¬ 
cumstances, but by carrying out this inspection work conscientiously, 
we may keep it from spreading rapidly, as it otherwise would. The 
small-pox quarantine does not eliminate the disease, but prevents a 
worse condition, and we do not dispense with the services of physicians 
because they do not cure every patient. 
The reform which has been fostered by the scale agitation has 
resulted in many old orchards, that were unprofitable, being reclaimed 
and put into good cultivation, with the result that they now yield a 
good profit, and this is an encouragement to the orchard industry gen 
erally, and hence an advantage to the nurserymen. But if the fruit 
grower should be told that the nurseries were no longer to be inspected 
and that he must run his own risk, unaided in the matter of purchasing 
infested trees, it is safe to assume that great discouragement to the 
industry would be the immediate result. The inspection is, therefore, 
of great advantage to both parties. Nursery inspection is a new fea¬ 
ture in the nurseryman’s business, just as spraying is a new feature in 
the business of the apple grower—a special feature created to meet 
special conditions. 
Probably we are unanimous in wishing that all the state laws were 
uniform. Many of us,'myself among the number, are in favor of a 
national inspection law that shall be enforced by the Lnited States De 
partment of Agriculture at Washington. Such an arrangement might 
take employment from some inspectors and give it to others, but on 
the whole we believe that it would be hailed with approbation by the 
entomologists and nurserymen of the country. 
At this point it may not be amiss to remark that the matter of nursery 
inspection has added very greatly to the labors of many of our entomolo¬ 
gists and time that could be profitably employed in making the necessary 
inspections. The inspection season is the very hottest part of the sum 
mer, and it is not easy work, when done with the thoroughness which 
it deserves. We believe that nursery inspection is as hard on the inspec¬ 
tor as it usually is on the nurseryman. The average inspector wishes 
much more to co-operate and be co-operated with than to antagonize. 
Then there is the question of the fumigation of nursery stock. In this 
state the commission controlling crop pests has adopted a regulation 
compelling the fumigation of stock by all nurserymen in the state. In 
New York the fruit growers and nurserymen are having a veritable 
war over this question, but in this state we anticipate no such difficulty. 
It will be some time before every nursery in our state will be fumigat. 
ed though the more progressive concerns will be practicing it this 
