Report of the illinois state entomologist concerning operations under the horticultural .

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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http : //books . google . com/ WHC^ I i l« 1 ^ /S *-.A -f- X^ T-f^. ^ AT I REPORT C / < ILLINOIS STATE ENTOMOLOGIST CONCeRNINQ OPERATIOHS ONDER THE HORTICULTIrE IBSPECTION ACT. October 31, 1900. f^HiL^HKROS. ^L^^ Prints JB nNGFttttfi. ILL : : ■r #• REPORT ILLraOIS STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OONOeBNING OPERATIOHS UHDER THE HOBTIGDLTURAL IHSPFCTIOM ACT. October 31, 1900. SPRINGFIELD. ILL : Phillips Bbos., State Pbinteks. 1900. REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. OPERATIONS UNDER THE HORTICULTURAL INSPECTION ACT. To his Excellency, John R. Tanner, Governor of the State of Illinois, Sir: — By one of the provisions of an Act to prevent the introduc- tion and spread in Illinois of the San Jose scale and other dangerous insects and contagious diseases of fruits, it is required that the State Entomologist make to the Governor a biennial report of his opera- tions under that Act, together with a financial statement in detail, and this report it is now my duty to submit for the period since April li, 1899, when this law went into eflPect. The main purposes of the Horticultural Inspection Act were evi- dently two: (1) to prevent the further dissemination in this State, through the nursery trade, of dangerous insects and fungus pests of fruits; and (2) to prevent the injury, by insects and plant diseases, of the horticultural property of one citizen as a consequence of the ignorance, negligence, or indiflPerence of another. For the first of these purposes a system of nursery inspection is established with the State Entomologist as the general and responsible Inspector, bis cer- tificate of the substantial freedom of nursery property and premises from dangerous insects and contagious diseases of plants having the force of a legal license valid for one year, without which no sales of such property can lawfully be made. To prevent the introduction of diseased or infested nursery stock into the State, transportation agen- cies are forbidden to deliver any consignment of uncertified stock originating outside the State. For the second purpose, it is further made the duty of the Entomol- ogist to inspect orchards and other similar property whenever there is reason to suppose them to be aflPected by dangerous insects or con- tagious plant disease, and power is given the Inspector to place such quarantine restrictions upon this property as may be necessary to prevent the extension of the injury to the property of others. If, after due notice, prescribed measures of insecticide treatment or dis- infection are not taken by the owner, the Entomologist is required by law to take them himself, half the expense of the operation being borne by the owner and the other half by the State. Orchards which became infested by the San Jose scale previous to 1899 are excepted from this last provision, such orchards being once treated by .the En- tomologist without charge to the owner. The operations of the office on which it is my duty to report are thus included under the two heads of nursery inspection and insecti- cide treatment of orchards and other property. Previous to the passage of the existing statute, which went into eflPect as an emergency Act, my office had been engaged since Sep- tember, 1896, in general but less extensive work of inspection and insecticide operations undertaken as a part of my general duty of investigation and experiment. Inspections were made during this period only at the request of owners of nurseries and at their expense, and insecticide operations were limited to a few orchards badly infested by the San Jose scale. An account of this earlier work is given in an article entitled "Recent Work on the San Jose scale in Illinois," accompanying this statement to you, and published in July, 1899, as a Bulletin of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. Of the two hundred and fifty nurseries (approximately) now known in Illi- nois the owners of only thirty-two applied for inspection under this voluntary system, and these were doubtless in all cases moved to make this application by the fact that without an oflScial certificate their products were excluded by law from several adjacent states. FIRST ANNUAL INSPECTION OP NURSBRIBS. Preliminary to my first general inspection of nurseries in 1899 it was necessary that I should have a complete list of Illinois nursery- men, and this was secured, with very few deficiencies, first, by com- paring published trade lists of those engaged in the nursery business in Illinois; second, by sending to nurserymen in every county where nurseries were known to exist a list of the names of nurserymen for that county with a request for additions and cor- rections; and, third, by careful inquiry by inspectors at county seats of counties visited by them, and of nurserymen whose premises were inspected. Additional information was secured from post- masters in counties from which no nurseries were given in the published lists. I have been somewhat embarrassed to^etermine just what should be called a "nursery" under the law, the dictionary definitions of the word being usually very comprehensive and sometimes indefinite. By the Standard dictionary a nursery is defined as "a place where trees, shrubs, flowering plants, etc., are raised fer sale or transplant- ing," and by the Century dictionary as "a place where trees are raised from seeds or otherwise in order to be transplanted; a place where vegetables, flowering plants and trees are raised (as by bud- ding or grafting), with a view to sale." Both these definitions might easily be made to include plantations of small fruits, green- houses, truck gardens, and gardens of flowering plants. Being strongly of the opinion, however that it was not the intention of the law that property of this kind should be subject to the annual inspection, I decided to apply the term in the sense in which it is commonly used in business; that is, to make a distinction between the nurseryman, the florist, and the vegetable gardener, while recog- nizing the fact, of course, that some nurserymen sell flowering plants and some florists sell nursery stock. In this sense a nursery may be defined as a place where trees, shrubs, and woody vines are grown for sale. This definition thus includes ornamental trees and shrubs as well as all woody-stemmed, fruit-bearing plants — that is, trees, shrubs, and vines, but not herbaceous plants. I was confirmed in this judgment of the meaning of the word nursery as used in the la\v by the fact that the main immediate purpose of the Act as expressed in the title is the control of the San Jose scale, and the definition above given includes all plants capable of distributing this insect and, with the exception of evergreens, scarcely any others. For purposes of inspection the State was divided this first year into four districts, one northern, one southern, and two central, in such a manner that each could be completely covered by a continu- ous trip, the principal lines of railroads largely determining the areas of the districts. To each of these divisions of the State an inspector was assigned early in July with instructions to go from place to place by the shortest and most convenient lines of travel, not returning to the office until his district was fully inspected. I exercised great care in the selection of inspectors, since the law requires that they shall be competent scientific and practical en- tomologists, and gives to their acts done in pursuance of my instruc- tions the same validity as to my own. It was particularly necessary that they should be known to me personally as thoroughly reliable men, and it was especially desirable that they should have due tact and discretion and a considerable experience of average human nature. I was fortunately able to provide for this work from my regular corps of assistants, all well known to me. Mr. E. C. Green was assigned to the northern district, Mr. R. W. Braucher to the north- central, Mr. P. M. McElfresh to the south-central, and Mr. H. O. Woodworth to southern and southeastern Illinois. The regular work of inspection in the northern district was begun July 6 and finished September 14; that in the north-central was be- gun July 11 and finished September 15; and that in southern Illinois was begun July 6 and finished September 13. In the south- central division the inspection was begun July 26, being delayed by some previous engagement of Mr. McElfresh, and was interrupted by his appointment September 4 as Instructor in Entomology in the Oregon Agricultural College. It was resumed in this district September 19 by Mr. Woodworth, after he had finished his own special work, and was completed October 9. Th^ total number of premises inspected for the year was two hun- dred and siBventy-five. Twenty-nine of these proved, however, not to be commercial nurseries, and two were merged by purchase, leaving two hundred and forty-five nurseries doing business in the State. Some of these were scarcely worthy of the name, but all came, ac- cording to my information, under the technical definition given above. Seventy-eight of these nurseries are in those counties grouped by the State Horticultural Society as northern Illinois, sixty-eight in central Illinois, and ninety-nine in southern Illinois. Two hundred and twenty- five of them were covered for the year ending June 1, 1900, by my certificate of inspection, leaving twenty without certificates. A certificate was refused to the owner of but one of these nurseries, and this because of the presence of the San Jose scale in a small lot of trees belonging to a dealer in nursery stock, and containing only trees left over from the sales of preceding 6 years. The remaining nineteen uncertified premises belong to nurserymen who did not pay the expenses of inspection as required by law, and who if they made sales or shipped or delivered stock did so in violation of the existing Act. Of the two hundred and twenty-five certificates issued, two hun- dred and twelve were in identical form as follows: — OFFICe OF THE ILLINOIS STATE EnTOMOLIGIST, Urbana, Illinois. This is to Certify that the growing nursery stock and premises of situated have been inspected according: to the provisions of *'An act to prevent the introduction and spread in Ilhnois of the San Jose scale and other dangerous insects and contagious diseases of fruits," approved and in force April 11, 1899, and that no mdications have been found of the presence of the San Jose scale or other dangerous insect or plant disease. This certificate is invalid after June 1, 1899, S. A. Forbes, State Entomologist. In a few cases the following alternative form of certificate was used: This is to Certify that the nursery stock bearing this certificate and grown on the premises of situated at has been inspected according to the provisions of **An act to prevent the introduction and spread in Ilhnois of the San Jose scale and otner dangerous insects and contag^ious diseases of fruits," approved and in force April 11, 1899, and that no' indications have been found of the presence of the San Jose scale or other dangerous insects or plant disease. This certificate is invalid after June 1, 1899. Occasionally a nursery was in such condition that I was obliged to prohibit the sale of its stock until certain insecticide measures had been applied under the supervision of an agent from my oflSce. In these cases the nurseryman agreed in writing that the certificate finally issued should be attached only to specified parts of his stock to which no objection had been found or to such as had received the required treatment under the approval of an office assistant. It is an evident requirement of the law that the expenses of nur- sery inspection should be paid by the owners of the nurseries, and that the certificate should not issue until such payment is made. This interpretation of the Act was occasionally questioned by nursery- men, some of whom were disposed to claim an inspector's certificate free of charge under Section 2 of the Act, and I consequently ob- tained from the Attorney General an opinion upon this point, as shown in the following letter: Attorney General's Office, Springfield, III., August 11, 1899. Hon. 8. A. Forbes, State Entomologist, Urbana, Illinois. Dear Sir: — Replying to your inquiry of this date, after careful examina- tion I am of the opinion that the last clause of Sec. 2 of the **Aot to prevent the introduction and spread in Illinois of the San Jose scale and other dan- gerous insects and contafirious diseases of fruits," approved April 11, 1899, requiring you to **give the owners thereof a certificate to that effect without charge" does not apply to inspection of nurseries made by you or your as- istants under Sec. 1, of the Act. It will be observed that Sec. 1 applies only to nurseries or to sellers of trees, vines, plants or other nursery stock, while See. 2 applies to nurseries, orchards, fruit plantations or other property or places in this State which you **have reason to suppose to be infested by dangerous insects or infected with dangerous plant diseases," and that the last clause of Sec. 2, so far as f giving a certificate without charge is concerned, applies only to orchards, ruit plantations or other property or places, and does not in terms, or by implication, apply to nursery or nursery stock. I think it is quite clear that for inspections of nurseries under Sec. 1 of that Act the owner of the nursery or nurseries is entitled to a certificate of the facts* only upon the payment of the expenses of inspection as certified by you. I remain, very respectfully, E. C. Akin, Attorney General, As the law does not prescribe any method of distributing costs .of inspection trips to individuals whose premises are inspected, I was obliged to assess these expenses according to my best judgment • of what was fair and just to all concerned; and as the trips of my inspectors were not made separately for the purpose of inspecting individual nurseries, but were general trips in the course of which a large number were visited in succession, I was obliged to adopt some plan of division of the total expense of this common trip. After careful study of the workings of various possible plans, the following method was adopted: — The inspection reports and bills of expense of each inspector were brought together every two weeks, and the total cost of inspection for this period, including the salary of the inspector, was distributed among the nurseries concerned in such a manner that all should share equally the cost of transportation and some other general ex- penses, while the cost of subsistence and the pay of the inspector were divided among them in proportion to the time required for the inspection of each nursery. Thus, if twenty nurseries were examined in these two weeks, each was charged with a twentieth part of the mere expense of traveling; and if the time spent in the inspection of a given nursery was, say, a fortieth of that spent in the inspection of aU of them, then it was further charged with a fortieth of the salary and the cost of subsists ence for the two weeks' period. In this way such expenses as had no relation to the size and condition of the nursery were divided equally; such as had some such relation were divided proportionally; and the total cost of all the trips was fully and exactly provided for. This scheme worked upon the whole fairly well, but had one minor disadvantage in the fact that it was practically impossible to make itemized statements to individual nurserymen, since the items would have included a complete exhibit of two weeks' expense of travel, but few of which it would have been possible for the individual nursery- man in any way to verify. Bills were consequently rendered for the total sum due for each inspection, an explanation of the method of its determination being also sent if any questions were raised, and the account was certified by me officially as required by law. The total cost of this first years' inspection of nurseries, exclusive of office expenses, was $1,548.86. Of this amount $1,415.48 was covered by certified bills to owners of nurseries, arrived at by the method above described, leaving a balance of $133.38 representing miscellaneous general expenses of inspectors not properly chargeable against separate nurseries. Of the $1,415.48 due from nurserymen on certified bills of inspection expenses, $1,326.87 was paid, leaving unpaid expenses to the amount of $88.61 for which the office funds The cost of printing, postage, clerical service, and supervision was covered by general appropriations to the State Entomologist's office other than those made in the Horticultural Inspection Act. Their total amount can only be estimated, since no attempt was made to separate them from other office expenses. They probably amount to at least $500, and the total cost of this first year's inspection may thus be placed at approximately $2,000, or an average of $8.16 per nursery. The actual charges to nurserymen for salaries and ex- penses of inspectors ranged from 75 cents to $36.90, the average charge being $5.77. SBOOND ANNUAL INSPECTION OF NURSBBIBS. The second annual inspection differed so little from the first in methods and principal results that, with minor exceptions, the pre- ceding description may be taken as applicable to both. As the sec- ond inspection would naturally be made more rapidly than the first, the State was divided into two districts instead of four, the inspectora assigned to these districts being Mr. E. C. G-reen for the northern half of the State, and Mr. R. A. Simpson for the southern half. The inspection of the southern district proceeding somewhat more slowly than that of the northern, Mr. R. W. Brauoher was assigned early in September to the assistance of Mr. Simpson, the latter with- drawing September li. The inspection of the northern district was begun July 2 and fin- ished September 8, and that of the southern district was begun July 14 and finished October 6. The method of distributing expenses to nurserymen differed from that of the preceding year only in the fact that instead of a two weeks' distribution period all subdivision and assessment of expenses was postponed until nearly or quite the end of the inspection season. Whenever a nurseryman wished his certificate in advance of the time of this general settlement, he deposited with the office a draft for a sum more than sufficient to cover his anticipated share of the ex- pense, and the difference between this advance payment and the amount finally due from him was returned to him as a rebate when this latter amount was ascertained. 9 The total expense of inspection, with the exception of o£Sce services and expenditures, was for this second year $915.28, which divided among the two hundred and forty-five nurseries makes an average of $b.l4: per nursery as compar

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