22 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
safety of their plantings; they help pay for the mainten¬ 
ance of the horticultural inspection service, largely pro¬ 
vide the trade that makes the nursery business profitable, 
and also have to bear the burden if the laxity of horticul¬ 
tural inspectioii and the carelessness of nurserymen per¬ 
mits the infestation of clean localities. 
And surely the commercial grower knows what pest 
control costs. Let us take for example the cost of fum¬ 
igation in the citrus districts of California, which by 
careful estimates is shown to amount to one and one 
quarter million dollars a year; this cost is merely for 
controlling some scale pests of the industiy. x4dd to 
that the everlasting cost of controlling the mealy-bug, 
root borers, or root aphis, or other pests distributed by 
nursery stock, and it is clearly show n that careful inspec¬ 
tion is absolutely necessary for the protection of the 
fruit interests. And this protection for the nursery¬ 
men (as showui by Florida’s experience) is very neces¬ 
sary, for in the case of a district quarantine, when the 
nurseryman would suffer the entire loss of his stock 
through condemnation or through regulations against 
shipping, his loss wmuld probably be as great as that of 
any other single interest. 
This is now generally understood and admitted, and 
the demand for a uniform and safer inspection system 
was agitated at the 1915 fruit growlers’ convention at 
Visalia. The result was the appointment of a represen¬ 
tative committee on horticultural legislation, which con¬ 
sisted of representatives of the fruit industry, of nur¬ 
serymen, and horticultural officials; and much commen¬ 
dation is due them for their unselfish labor in revising 
the horticultural code of the state. 
In the opinion of some representatives this committee 
did not go far enough; the suggestion w^as made that the 
power of controlling the county inspection service be 
vested in one central authority, the State Commissioner 
of Horticulture, and no doubt such action wmuld bring 
about tbe best and most effective results, not only from 
the standpoint of efficiency, but also from that of econ¬ 
omy. It would avoid duplication of efforts and con¬ 
fusion of authority and bring relief from vexatious dif- 
liculties in many cases w^here the opinion of one county 
horticultural commissioner may differ materially from 
the opinion of a county horticultural commissioner of an 
adjoining county. And it is admitted that such differ¬ 
ences of opinion, honestly held, have wrought hard¬ 
ships upon the nurserymen as well as upon the fruit 
shippers. However, the fact that the old structure of 
horticultural law^s has stood the test of time for many 
years and the foundation of the structure is still sound 
and solid induced your legislative committee to improve 
it rather than to plan an entirely new one. Perhaps the 
principal reason why the legislative committee did not 
consider the adoption of a new" set of law"S w"as the fact 
that the legislature of 1917—which w as pledged to econ¬ 
omize on the state’s resources—in all probability wmuld 
not have consented to the necessary appropriation for 
paying the county commissioners from the state funds 
and ])lacing them under tbe immediate control of the 
state commissioner of horticulture. 
I am pleased to be able to re])ort that the horticultural 
committee w^orked together in harmony, and whenever 
the horticultural ollicials and nurserymen members of 
this committee disagreed three commissioners and three 
nurserymen were appointed a committee to settle these 
disputed points, and it may be interesting to you to know' 
that a nurseryman was the chairman of this committee; 
perhaps you w ill be able to guess the name of this nur¬ 
seryman w ithout any great effort. 
Not only were the horticultural quarantine laws effect¬ 
ing tbe nursery interests considered by this committee 
but the fresh fruit and standardization acts affecting the 
fruit growers were also greatly strengthened and per¬ 
fected. 
While you, gentlemen of the nursery profession, may 
often have thought that the horticultural code of Cali¬ 
fornia w"as created merely for the purpose of annoying 
you or providing obstacles in the way of your business 
enterprises, I desire to point out to you that the fruit 
growers voluntarily created the standardization act and 
placed themselves exactly under the same system of in¬ 
spection as you have; in other w'ords the careless fruit 
grow'er, wdio is shipping to the market immature, dis¬ 
eased, or w'ormy fruit, will have to submit to the same 
strict regulations of the horticultural inspection service 
as apply to the careless nurseryman who endeavors to 
ship trees or plants that are diseased or covered with 
insect pests. 
It is quite true, that there have been many instances 
where arbitrary action of commissioners or inspectors, 
when unreasonably executed, bas caused material losses 
to the nurserymen or fruit shipper. How^ever, in spite 
of these failings you will admit that our horticultural 
system and our inspection seiwice as a whole have been 
successful, and I firmly believe that you will stand united 
with the fruit growers in giving the service your best 
support in the future. 
Speaking for the state commission—and also, I am 
sure, for the county commissioners—I will say that wm 
do not believe in arbitraiy and unnecessarily harsh action 
in the case of accidental and involuntary infringement 
of the law—but I feel certain there will be no sympathy 
from your ranks in cases of unlawful intent, or action by 
a guilty party, wdiere summary measures by condemna¬ 
tion and destruction of infested nursery material wmuld 
be necessary. 
A little later Mr. Hoyt may have an opportunity of 
speaking to you about the strong inspection measures 
that have been adopted by the State Plant Commissioner 
of Florida, and of which the main features are as fol¬ 
low's :— 
1. All certificates must be purchased from the state 
nursery inspector, and are good only as long as the 
nursery remains in a satisfactory and clean condi¬ 
tion. 
2. Certificates are consecutively numbered, and a re¬ 
cord is kept of the numbers issued to each nursery¬ 
man. 
5. Each nurseryman must account satisfactorily for 
each certificate received, and can account for cer¬ 
tificates used on nursery stock only by sending to 
the nursery inspector a duplicate of the invoice cov¬ 
ering the shipment, which invoice must show' the 
serial numhei' of certificate used on the goods cov¬ 
ered by that invoice. 
Let us hope that such strict measures, which are so 
