THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Showing Size of Cases of Plants from 6 feet to 
20 feet in height and weighing from 600 
to 1500 pounds each. 
It has been suggested that a special examining warehouse 
might be provided for nursery stock. This might meet the 
requirements were the only factor considered that of a ques¬ 
tion of Customs valuation, but an inspection for insect infes¬ 
tation is an entirely different matter, and we are thoroughly 
convinced that no facilities, however complete and expensive, 
would enable adequate inspection at the dock without 
necessarily injuring, and destroying in some cases, large 
quantities of valuable trees and plants. 
CONCLUSION 
Summing up then, it would seem a fair proposition to say 
that dock inspection is out of the question for the following 
reasons: 
1. Lack of space. 
2. Unfavorable storing conditions. 
3. Method of packing the goods. 
4. Amount of time required to make the examination 
under existing conditions. 
5. Injury and destruction of nursery stock under the 
most favorable method conceivable of conducting such an 
examination. 
The pictures which accompany this article give an inade¬ 
quate idea of conditions, owing to the fact that time did not 
permit the photographer to study the situation to the 
end that properly descriptive illustrations might be 
secured. 
we to 'open and inspect these cases at the moment of their 
arrival. Each case would occupy at least three times the 
amount of floor space which would be required to store it, 
and to this space should be added one-half more to accom¬ 
modate the inspector and allow him to get at the contents of 
the case. When viewed from this standpoint, the im¬ 
possibility of handling the goods is at once realized. It is 
absolutely and completely out of the question—practically 
impossible. On the other hand, were the space difficulty 
removed the other difficulties which are equally important, 
remain. In the first place, in order to ensure absolute free¬ 
dom from insects every case and every bundle of stock 
would have to be examined with great scrutiny. This would 
mean taking out all the stock, separating it, and then repack¬ 
ing it. Here would come the great difficulty, for the 
foreign exporter is an adept in the manner of packing to 
economize space, and very few cases could be made to receive 
the amount of stock which had been pressed into them by 
the ingenuity and appliances used by the foreign packer. 
Another important difficulty, if not an absolute bar in 
itself to the introduction of dock inspection, is the time fac¬ 
tor. Nursery stock is perishable and every day’s delay in 
transit lowers its vitality and lessens its value. It will stand 
considerable delay and considerable vicissitude in the mat¬ 
ter of climatic variation, when in the original package, but 
when opened and allowed to become partly dry it is very 
susceptible to injury. The importer, therefore, is most 
insistent that the stock should pass from the steamer to the 
consignee with the least possible delay. 
Nursery Stock first received from Holland stacked 
outside Storage Sheds, North River, New York 
