protection. All nursery stock going outside the district is examined. by federal inspectors or state inspectors who are deputized to act in that capacity so that the spread of the insect is safeguarded when goods of this character are shipped. Some complaint was made during the fall because Christmas trees and greens were not allowed to be shipped to points outside the quarantined area, but as it is practically impossible to make an adequate inspection of this class of material, it was necessary to prohibit such shipments. Some confusion has arisen in regard to the provisions of the quarantine, but for the most part it is working out very satisfactorily and cannot fail to safeguard remote sections of the country from possible introduction of these insects from the infested area. This quarantine is only one of the many beneficial results of the passage of the federal act.

NOTES ON INSPECTION

By F. L. WASHBURN, St. Anthony Park, Minn.

The leading points intended to be presented to you in this paper have been practically covered by our discussion with the Quarantine Board last evening. I believe that all of us as inspectors have reason to congratulate ourselves upon the passage of the federal quarantine bill. It gives our actions as inspectors of various states a substantial and authoritative backing never before experienced. This is not only true of inspection of foreign stock, but inspection of domestic stock as well, since nurserymen, rather than see their state or a part of it quarantined will welcome rigid inspection on the part of state officials.

Minnesota has had, apparently, judging from the discussion last evening, the same experience as many other states under the working of this new law. We have found during the last year occasional shipments for which we had received no notice, and also, occasionally apparently more than one notice for the same shipment, and we have sometimes been at a loss to know what shipment was referred to by a notice from the quarantine board, not having upon its face any reference to identification marks. We have further received one or two notices referring to bulbs and bulbs alone, which we understand are not included in the outline of the work of the quarantine board. We feel that the work would be very much strengthened if marks on the packages and their contents were placed upon each notice sent from Washington; but we all realize that it takes a little while for a new law to become established, and I have no doubt but that another year will find the machinery in such good working condition that there will be no delay or confusion or embarrassment of any kind.

In order to conform to this federal law, we propose to have enacted in Minnesota this winter if it is a possible thing, a much more stringent law than we have at present. Under the present law the entomologist only inspects nurseries upon request, or when he has reason to suspect the presence of injurious insects, but even in that event, he can only inspect stock upon premises where it is grown for sale. He is absolutely powerless with reference to private individuals, estates, parks, etc.

Two matters have come to our attention as inspector during the season just passed which are worthy of comment and may have been experienced by officials in other states. In the first instance two or more dealers in a Minnesota city who shipped goods directly from some other state to a patron and, not desiring to advertise the firm from whom they bought these goods, asked us in order that they might conform to the law, to furnish them with a Minnesota certificate signed by the Minnesota official to the effect that this stock was inspected where grown. This request had to be denied, naturally, and we explained to them that the Minnesota official could have no authority outside of Minnesota, and that their difficulty was purely a trade matter which they would have to arrange for without the cooperation of the Minnesota inspector.

The second matter to which I refer is of much more serious import, and one of such a character as to call for some discussion by members of this Association. In connection with the affair just referred to, I found that officials in two Eastern states were certifying that certain. dealers in Minnesota owned nurseries in the Eastern states referred to. This testimony was signed by prominent officials and the statements were, of course, absolutely false. I have since learned that this condition of affairs has come to the notice of other inspectors beside myself.

The need of properly qualified inspectors is a fact of growing importance impressed upon us each year. We have been asked by various states to recommend or furnish men for inspection services but we are seriously put to it ourselves to get men properly qualified to take care of our own work in Minnesota, and so serious is the situation that we contemplate establishing a special course in our college curriculum for inspectors. It is evident that deputies sent among nurserymen must be mature men. It injures our work seriously to send boys, or those whom nurserymen might regard as boys to do this work. Further, no matter how efficient an inspector may be as an expert in detecting injurious insects or contagious plant diseases, if he is not able to discuss methods of spraying, different insecticides and spraying machinery in a helpful way with nurserymen and orchardists, he is hardly acceptable to them as an inspector. In other words, an inspector must be an "all around man."

COÖPERATION BETWEEN STATE HORTICULTURAL

INSPECTORS

By A. W. MORRILL, Phoenix, Ariz.

It is not the writer's intention to present in this paper a comprehensive scheme for coöperation among those in charge of state horticultural inspection affairs. Rather he frankly confesses to the narrowness of his experience in this line of work and to his lack of a thorough knowledge of the problems of most of his fellow-workers in other states. This paper is prompted principally by certain problems which confront the inspection service in Arizona-problems, however, which are not peculiar to Arizona, but which the writer is prepared to discuss particularly from the standpoint of the arid southwest.

During the first year's operation of the Horticultural Inspection law in Arizona, the records of our inspection of imported plants showed 8.6 per cent of the shipments from other states to be infested with insect pests. The second year's operation showed a decrease in infested shipments to 6.4 per cent and the third year's to 4.2 per cent. The writer believes he is not ungenerous in ascribing this improvement of conditions not to a reduction in the numbers of insect pests in the nurseries and other plant shipping establishments or to increased efficiency of the officials in other states, who furnished the certificates of inspection, but to the simple spread of knowledge among nurserymen, florists and other plant shippers concerning Arizona's requirements. It is our experience that it is important that information be placed in the hands of not only those who are now shipping plants into the state but those who may do so in the future, in order that they may comply with our requirements, or if impossible to do this, that they may protect themselves by refusing orders from our state. The fact that we propose to inspect all shipments of plants coming into the state affects only in a degree the desirability of having infested shipments kept out. In spite of the best endeavors on the part of common carriers to keep all of their new, as well as old employees informed concerning the matter of holding plants for inspection, occasionally a shipment will be delivered without awaiting for the inspector's release. This is especially likely to occur when the packages, boxes or bundles are not properly labeled to indicate the true contents. It is therefore important, as a matter of protection, that every practicable effort be made to reduce the number of infested shipments entering a state even in the case of those states where shipments of plants are inspected at destination.

MEANS FOR INFORMING SHIPPERS OF PLANTS CONCERNING STATE REQUIREMENTS

In this connection, the writer proposes that this Association provide for an annually revised circular of information containing, in ast concise form as practicable, the exact requirements of each state, which are of interest to shippers of plants, and agricultural and horticultural products. The information should include the restrictions imposed by state quarantine orders and for each state should be prepared for inclusion in the circular suggested, by the official in charge of the plant inspection service. Such a circular might appear as a revision of circular No. of the Bureau of Entomology, providing arrangements for coöperation with the United States Department of Agriculture can be made. In this case, the restrictions upon interstate and international shipments of plants by the National Plant Quarantine Act and by the Quarantine Orders issued by the Federal Horticultural Board might perhaps with advantage be included in the same publication.

It is essential, the writer believes, that such a circular, to serve its greatest usefulness, be revised annually and be issued with regularity on or about October first of each year. The issuance of such a circular would not, however, in itself, fulfill the desired object of placing the information in the hands of those principally concerned. A mailing list for the distribution of the circular should be maintained under the supervision of the secretary of this organization, made up of lists of nurserymen and florists doing an interestate business to be furnished by the officials in charge of the plant inspection matters in the various states. Such a mailing list would, of course, need annual revision.

NEED AND MEANS FOR BETTER COÖRDINATION of Efforts oF STATE PLANT INSPECTION OFFICIALS

Practically all of the state horticultural laws require a certificate of inspection from the shipper's home state as a condition for the acceptance of nursery stock importations. Experience in those states where inspections of the shipments are made at destination shows that as a measure of protection this requirement fails utterly to accomplish the desired object. Under present conditions it is even harmful in one respect it hinders and delays the spread of the system of inspection at destination which has been adopted by only a few states, but which is destined to become general. The additional requirement of some states of fumigation of nursery stock as a condition of entry is, in the writer's opinion and experience, of very little value as far as stock admittedly infested in any degree is concerned.

Arizona, with its insufficient supply of home grown nursery stock

and with its population of more than ordinary cosmopolitan origin, receives nursery stock and other plant supplies from nearly every state in the country. The figures presented in the introduction of this paper for the first season's operation of the inspection law indicate that where the shippers are not fully aware that inspection at destination is practiced, nearly nine shipments out of 100 are actually infested in some degree by injurious insects; moreover these infested shipments are each accompanied by a certificate declaring that the shippers stock has been duly inspected within a year and found free from injurious insects.

The writer has several times been moved to attempt to preserve the dignity of the plant inspection profession by explaining that some insects, although admittedly injurious, are so widely distributed in some sections of the country that further attempts to prevent their spread by means of nursery stock in such sections are of comparatively little value. Let us, however, consider the Eastern peach tree borer. Are there not even in the most generally infested Eastern states, fruitgrowing sections, or sections which are yet undeveloped, where this pest does not exist? And is it not the duty of nursery inspectors to give consideration to the protection of such sections.

Dr. O. C. Bartlett, assistant state entomologist of Arizona, formerly deputy inspector in Massachusetts, informs me that in the latter state. there are sections which need protection against the common peach tree borer. Doubtless this is true also of practically every state in the East. In the far West, however, the Eastern peach tree borer is very limited in its distribution and in Arizona and neighboring states there is just as much reason to exclude this pest as the San José scale.

Shipments of peaches, plum and apricot trees infested to a greater or less degree by the Eastern peach tree borer have been received in Arizona during the past three years from at least five states located north and east of us. In one case a shipment of about 3,000 peach trees which appeared to be the infested discard of a nursery was received at Phoenix. In this case a certificate supposed to show that the trees had been free from injurious insects when inspected in the nursery, accompanied the shipment of trees which were not only infested, but for the most part virtually killed by insect pests. Trees killed by San José scale could not have been of less value than these girdled peach trees. When notified that the shipment either must be burned or must be reshipped, the nurserymen wired that they expected their "certificate to protect them." Needless to say, it did not. Is it not important that state inspectors, for the sake of their reputations, and honest nurserymen, for the sake of their business, be protected against such an abuse of official inspection certificates?