THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
286 
CONFERENCE ON NURSERIES. 
Methods of Inspecting Trees Discussed by State Horticultural 
Inspectors at Washington Meeting—National Inspection Law 
Indorsed—List of Questions Submitted—Sixteen States 
Represented—Comment on the Subject — 
Plans for Next Year. 
Horticultural inspectors of several states met ip Chicago on 
January 4 th and effected an organization which met in Wash¬ 
ington Nov. 11-12 to discuss these questions: 
1. Within what limits of time may nurseries properly be inspected, 
and what period should the annual certificate be made to cover ? 
2 . What should be the usual form of certificate ? 
3. What should be the procedure or form of the certificate, in case 
some part of a nursery is affected by a dangerous fungus or insect pest 
not of a kind to involve other parts not so affected ? 
4. What should be the common policy of state inspectors with 
reference to stock officially inspected and certified in other states ? 
5. What application should be given to the term nursery stock ? 
Should it include herbaceous plants grown out of doors ? Should it 
even include greenhouse plants ? 
G. What nursery pests should be regarded as dangerous enough to 
influence or prevent the granting of certificate ? 
7. May provision be made for the publication of a practical article 
on the principal pests of the country, available for all horticultural 
inspectors, and distributed to all others immediately interested ? 
8 . What measures should be taken by horticultural inspectors for 
the regulation of dealers, not owners of nursery premises, nor growing 
their own stock for sale ? 
9. Is national legislation covering nursery inspection desirable and 
practicable ? 
10. What, in the judgment of the conference, is the best insecticide- 
program, for orchards infested with a San Jose scale, for the official 
entomologist charged with the destruction of the scale, and for the 
private owner seeking to suppress the scale or to keep it in check ? 
11. What insects or fungous pests of the orchard should be regarded 
as sufficiently dangerous to the property of others to require suppres¬ 
sion by individuals in the general interest ? 
12. What is a sound public policy with respect to the division 
between the state and the property owner of the costs of a practical 
operation for the control of horticultural pests ? 
We are indebted to the chairman of the meeting, Prof. S. A. Forbes, 
state entomologist of Illinois, for the following report of the con¬ 
ference : 
Sixteen states were represented by their official horticultural inspec¬ 
tors as follows: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, 
Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, 
North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. 
In the course of the conference it was voted that the time of inspec¬ 
tion should be determined in each state at the discretion of the inspec¬ 
tor, but that all peach stock should be inspected as late in the season as 
practicable, particularly where the surroundings were such as to cause 
suspicion of the occurrence of the San Jose scale, or where the origin 
of the buds was either suspicious or unknown. In such cases, if the 
nursery w T as inspected early, a late supplemental inspection of the 
peach stock should be made. 
A committee report was received to the effect that the best insecticide 
procedure for the destruction of the San Jose scale in the nursery is 
“strict inspection followed by proper fumigation with hydrocyanic 
acid gas,” and in orchrds, “late summer and fall treatment with dilute 
solutions of insecticide soaps, oils or other effective insecticides to kill 
young scales ; and winter treatment with insecticide oaps or oils suf¬ 
ficiently strong to kill the scale, and which have been proved safe to 
trees of all kinds in the region where the application is to be made.” 
It w r as further voted that a certificate ought not to apply in any state 
beyond the commencement of the next breeding period of the San Jose 
scale in that state; and that, as a rule, but one form of certificate should 
be used by each inspector, so worded as to be applicable not only to 
stock from nurseries all parts of which were free from dangerous insect 
and fungus pests, but also to stock sold from nurseries'after some parts 
of it had been thrown out as not included under the certificate. It was 
further agreed that every certificate should specify the date of the com¬ 
pletion of the inspection on which it was based. 
Concerning national control of interstate commerce in nursery stock, 
it was resolved that the bill providing for such control by the United 
States Department of Agriculture, introduced and favorably reported 
in both branches of Congress at the last session, should be enacted. 
It was unanimously agreed that s'rawberry plants, grape cuttings, 
and ornamental stock grown out of doors should be regarded as nur¬ 
sery stock and subject to inspection; and that where a state requires 
the inspection of nurseries, it ought to provide for such inspection 
without cost to the nurseryman. 
The Secretary of Agriculture was asked to provide for the pub¬ 
lication of a practical article on the principal nursery pests of the 
country, available for all horticultural inspectors and distributed ' 
to all nurserymen and others immediately interested. For the purpose 
of obtaining materials for compiling a list of nursery pests dangerous 
enough to influence the granting of a certificate, each official inspector 
was requested to submit a list of the insects and diseases which, in his 
opinion, should always bar nursery stock from receiving an official 
certificate, together with a secondary list of those of less importance 
but nevertheless requiring the attention of the owner of the premises. 
These lists, when received by the Secretary, will be compiled by him 
and the resulting general list furnished to all inspectors. 
The subject of the legal and constitutional powers and duties of 
inspectors was discussed at length, but owing to the different forms 
of legislation in the different states no general conclusion was reached. 
The conference decided not to form a permanent organization, but 
provided for another meeting to be held in connection with the next 
annual Convention of the Association of Agricultural Colleges and 
Experiment Stations. 
S. A. Forbes, State Entomologist of Illinois, was elected chairman 
for the ensuing year with instructions to take all necessary steps 
preliminary to this meeting 
It was agreed at this conference that dealers, not owners 
of nurseries, for growing their own stock for sale, should 
receive certificates if stock in their possession is found to be 
clean, or if an infested portion is destroyed, or if the dealer 
will treat the stock according to the directions of the 
inspector. 
Regarding the conference, George G. Atwood, of New York 
State, one of those present, says in the Country Gentleman : 
The right of one state to set up and enforce laws or regulations 
against the entry of stock from other states in direct violation of the 
United States inter-state commerce laws, and the right of any 
inspector or commission to enter on the premises of an owner and 
arbitrarily destroy his orchards for the public good, are questions 
which are coming before the courts, and which may not all be settled 
in the interest of such inspectors as may happen to be on the defensive. 
No doubt the interchange of opinions and the exposition of practices 
will have an effect on the future work of all the inspectors, and 
possibly some influence on coming legislation. The inspectors all 
feel the burden of responsibility resting on them ; they are alert to 
the best methods of doing their work, and while their fields of labor 
are widely separated and the conditions various, a feeling of good 
fellowship prevailed. All the inspectors admit that they live “in 
glass houses” so far as San Jose scale is considered, for, do our work 
as thoroughly and conscientiously as we may, do any of us like to 
be informed that a cise of scale has slipped from under our 
observation and gone into a neighboring state ? The San Jose scale 
problem is still regarded by the inspectors as a very serious one, and 
one that must be combated without intermission. 
WILL USE ITS COLUMNS REGULARLY. 
Village Nurseries, G. W. Kemp, Manager, Harnedsville, Pa. 
—“ Enclosed please find check for one year’s subscription to your most 
valuable paper. We cannot offer too much praise for your most valu. 
able trade journal, and will use its columns regularly in placing our- 
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