378 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[December, 



THE EUROPEAN EMBARGO ON AMERICAN 

 PLANTS AND ROOTS. 



BY PETER HENDERSON. 



In your remarks on this subject in the November 

 Monthly you seem to deprecate the idea of retah- 

 ation. That seems to me to be the only way to bring 

 the idiots who swayed the Berne Convention of 

 July 4th, 1883, to their senses. Let us make use 

 of the same weapons, suicidal though they be, and 

 we may rest assured that less than twelve months 

 will suffice to bring these wiseacres to their sober 

 second thoughts. About the only horticultural 

 commodities that America exports to Europe in 

 quantity are tuberoses and potatoes, probably not 

 exceeding in amount ^100,000 per year, while the 

 United States undoubtedly imports fifty times, and 

 perhaps one hundred times, that amount in bulbs 

 and plants. True, it would be a deprivation and 

 loss to resort to such an expedient as to have our 

 government retaliate, but Europe has everything 

 to lose in such a fight. We are every year be- 

 coming better able to grow the bulbs and plants 

 that we are importing, and were we forced upon 

 our own resources it might be the best thing that 

 could happen to us, as in our great variety of soil 

 and climate we would probably find that even 

 Holland bulbs and other similar roots could be as 

 well grown here as there. It is not more than 

 twenty years ago that we thought it necessary to 

 import all our gladiolus, and some of our tuberose 

 bulbs. Now we can give them odds on both. 

 Twelve months loss to Europe of America as a 

 customer for her bulbs and plants would cause her 

 to run up the white flag and ask for a cessation of 

 hostihties, but that she will meanly keep up this 

 one-sided fight unless we strike back, and strike 

 back promptly, I can see no reason to doubt. 

 Had there been a shadow of reason for the sweep- 

 ing restriction against American plants and bulbs 

 being landed in Europe it would have been easier 

 to bear, but to give the trivial pretext that it is to 

 prevent the introduction of phylloxera into lands 

 already swarming with it shows that the members 

 of the Berne Convention were either a lot of sense- 

 less old grannies, or else they were influenced by 

 parties whose interest it was to prevent the few 

 American exports of bulbs, etc., reaching Europe, 

 and made use of this absurd and miserable excuse 

 for that purpose. It is unpleasant to think that 

 human nature is so depraved that men will stoop 

 to such means for the attainment of ends. But 

 who can tell ? Even Bismarck was disturbed 

 by the ghost of trichina in American pork, al- 



though he could swallow the infinitely more nu- 

 merous worms in his own native article without 

 seeing them. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



John J. Thomas. — (See frontispiece to the an- 

 nual volume). In our botanical works we read of 

 the corky white elm, Ulmus suberosa of Thomas, 

 who first discovered, described and named it. 

 This botanist was David Thomas, chief engineer 

 of the Western portion of the Erie Canal, and 

 father to the subject of this sketch, who thus in- 

 herited a taste for his father's scientific and me- 

 chanical pursuits. John J. was born near Cayuga 

 Lake, in Cayuga county. New York, in the year 

 1 8 10. The father being absent on his professional 

 pursuits from 1820 to 1828, the son had, in a meas- 

 ure, to superintend his own education. With a 

 natural fondness for intellectual studies, he soon 

 acquired a considerable knowledge of the natural 

 and physical sciences, which he applied to the 

 advancement of his horticultural and agricultural 

 pursuits. In his twenty-first year he became asso- 

 ciate editor of the old, and, in its day, very success- 

 ful Genesee Fanner, first published at that time by 

 Luther Tucker & Son, with which he remained in 

 connection many years. In 1840 the Albany 

 Cultivator, a monthly magazine, was consolidated 

 with the Genesee Farmer, and J.J. Thomas con- 

 tinued as horticultural editor. This again became 

 a weekly — the Country Gentleman, in 1853, with 

 Mr. Thomas as horticultural editor — so that we 

 may say he has been continuously in the editorial 

 chair of what is actually a continuous serial for 

 over fifty years. Few of us can boast of so many 

 years of persevering usefulness. During a great 

 part of this time he was engaged in business as a 

 nurseryman, wherein he had an excellent oppor- 

 tunity to put into practice his horticultural learn- 

 ing, and was thus enabled to speak from actual 

 experience, as well as from thoughtful study. His 

 business career extended over thirty years. 



His pen and pencil have not been confined to 

 editorial pursuits alone. In 1846 he issued the 

 Fruit Culturist, which has been so popular that 

 no less than nineteen successive editions have been 

 called for, a career of usefulness allotted to but 

 very few horticultural works. It started as a small 

 i8mo, and has grown to a handsome octavo work. 

 As the inventor of Thomas' smoothing harrow and 

 other implements, he is as well known to the agri- 

 cultural as to the horticultural community, and the 

 drawingsin his widely read work on farm implements 



