The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-12
SCALE OF SAN JOSE
BILL TO PREVENT IT'S SPREAD HAS
STIRRED UP SOME DIS
SENSION.
NURSERY MEN ARE WARLIKE.
SAID THOSE LIVING IN THE STATE
OBJECT TO OUTSIDE COMPE-
Triton.
NURSERY MEN ARE WARLIKE.
SUBSTITUTE BILL PROPOSED
10 Avoid Objections to the Judi
ciary Committees Pending
Bill.

The San Jose scale bill, which has
been hung up for several days on the
senate calendar. as related in the
Glo b e of yesterday, has aroused no
lnconsiderable opposition on the part
Of dealers in fruit trees, and it is prob
able that a fight will be made on it if
an effort is made to take it up when
the calendar is reached today.
A substitute bill has been prepared
and will be sent to the senate with the
request that it take the place of the
pending bill S. F. 367, itself a substi-
tute for the original Greer bill. In
a letter which will be presented to the
senate today, the trainers recite that
they have always secured their trade
in the state by honorable. means, and
they charge that the prime movers in
the bill now before the senate are the
same clique who have been at work for
several years to secure the passage of
laws aimed to shut out outside compe-
tition." A law passed six or seven
Years ago, subsequently declared I'M
constitutional by Judge Sanborn, was
the scheme, they say, Of these people,
and the petitioners charge that Sec
tons and of the pending bill are
similarly faulty in that they endeaVor
to restrict interstate commerce.
1--WE will fight say the petitioners,
"as hard and long to prevent the San
Jose scale entering our state as any
one, but we shall resist having this
matter run and controlled by, and put
ting interstate commerce into the
hands and control Of the state expert
ment station, which would be viz
tually controlled by the officers of the
state horticultural society. which in
turn is controlled by local nurserymen.
We maintain and insist that no state
In the Union has suffered or ever will
suffer from San Jose scale as Minnesota
has suffered and lost in dollars by the
sale of blacl1-hearted diseased trees
Nearly every experiment station in the
state is selling more or less of them. A
few years ago a bill was before the
legislature to make the selling Of such
trees a criminal offense, and an ex-
pertinent station agent, who is still in
The same position, said that if it passed
De would not dare sell tree. We in
list upon Incorporating in such bill
provision to stop this wholesale waste
If money to the farmers by purchas-
ng black-hearted trees. We want an
honest, fair and just law on these mat
ers, or none. This San Jose scale orig
mated in a hot and damp portion Of
California, and has never been discov-
red in any climate like that of Min
lesOta. We are also perfectly safe in
laying that no stock is or will be sold
N this state coming from sections
where the scale exists, or probably will
Section 5 of the bill provides for
furnishing the inspector with a list Of
customers and their purchases, which
would be unreasonable, unjust, and, we
believe, unconstitutional The idea
demonstrates the main thought and
dea Of the measure, to shut out out
!ide competition.
1--WE resist placing the control Of
these matters in the hands of the very
rnes who, by act and deed have dem
cnstrated their utter untitness to han
ale them, only in a manner to serve
their own wishes and profits either
directly or indirectly"
The petitioners also urge that the
danger Of the spread of the scale is
more from the fruit than the nursery
stock some Of the former coming di-
rect from infected districts. 1t is also
calculated that the expense of inspect
ing shipments INTO the state under the
bill would be from $4,000 to 500, 600
Meantime, a convention is being held
at Washington, called by the Ohio
agricultural society," looking to the
framing Of national law for the pre-
VentiOn of the diffusion of the San
Jose scale and all other injurious in
Eects.
The substitute bill presented provides
that, while the governor shall appoint
the Inspector he shall not be limited
In his selection to members of the staff
1T the state station, as under the pend
lng bill, and also adds to the scope of
mis- inquiry the existence of black
hearts in trees as we'll as the scale.
Material changes are made in the
provisions governing the shipment OF
trees in the bill to be presented, but
otherwise the changes above named
are the important ones.
Senator Greer, the author of the
original bill, for which the pending
bill is substitute, says that the law
pending, S. F. 367, is a retaliatory one.
aimed to give the nurserymen of Min
nesOta the same protection that nurs-
arymen of other neighbOring states are
afforded by laws either proposed or
already enacted. 1t is said that S. f.
867 was framed by the secretary of
the Jewell Nursery company, Lake
City.