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HORTICULTURE 



October 4, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



Established bj YVIIUam J. Stewart In 1S04 



VOL. XXX 



OCTOBER 4, 1919 



NO. 14 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 78 Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 

 Telephone Fort Hill 3694 



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Sintered as second-class matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Offle* 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Congrew of March 3, 1879. 



It is difficult to find suitable words 

 The Arboretum j u which to condemn the action of 

 thefts the men, whoever they were, who 



robbed the Arnold Arboretum of 

 some of its most valuable plants, as reported on another 

 page. This was not vandalism, but a carefully thought 

 out and crafty theft. It is impossible not to believe that 

 it was done by expert gardeners or else by men with 

 nursery training. They knew exactly what plants they 

 wanted. They removed them skilfully and smoothed 

 over the holes which were left in a professional way. In 

 all probability they planed the robbery months ago, when 

 the plants were in flower. Possibly they made a dia- 

 gram of the beds at that time. In any event they went 

 directly to the spot and apparently dug the plants they 

 were after without waste of time. The job was made 

 easy because there was no police protection, the grounds 

 being entirely unguarded after the workmen left for the 

 day. There is an opportunity for comment in this re- 

 spect. The Arboretum lias never been policed as it ought 

 to be. This is the City of Boston's work, but evidently 

 the city officials do not realize the value of the rare and 

 costly plants which adorn the grounds by the thousands. 

 Vandals and mischief makers have destroyed or injured 

 many plants in the past, as well as breaking expensive 

 labels, and most of them have escaped scott free. 



In this ease, though, the loss is a very serious one 

 and affects the entire country's garden interests, for 

 these new plants are being grown for the benefit of all 

 the people. As fast as possible the new plants which 

 the Arboretum -rows are distributed. Nurserymen in 

 all parts of the land are supplied with seeds and cuttings. 

 The co-operation of all growers, commercial and private, 

 is needed in order that this work may lie carried on 

 successfully. The grounds are always open in order that 

 everybody may see just what is being raised. It seems 



difficult to believe that any commercial grower could 

 -loop to iliel't like this in order to obtain rare plant- for 

 propagation and ultimate sale, yet all the evidence points 

 in thai direction. Let us hope that the reward* offered 



l'\ i lie Ail 1 1 1 in will bring about a detection of the 



rascals. 



That the Federal Horticultural Hoard is 

 Refuses uu { a popular institution with plant grow- 



American erg across the water goes without sa 

 trade .\n international convention lias ju-t been 



held at Paris and some \. Iialie re- 



marks were made about the unjust ruling of the Ameri- 

 can Board which happens to be in the saddle just now. 

 It was decided to keep hammering away with the hope 

 of having the board's rulings modified, and the Belgian 

 representatives reported that Belgium was doing its best 

 in tin- direction. This unfortunate little country suf- 

 fer- greatly from the action of the United States author- 

 ities, and coming just at the close of the great war in 

 which it was all but crushed, the situation is doubly 

 hard. 



There are other foreign complaints, however, aside 

 from those which have to do with the importation of 

 plants. Seed shippers are becoming very uneasy at 

 the treatment they are receiving. An example worth 

 citing is that of a Scotch seed company. This com- 

 pany wrote a letter to The Seed World, which has now 

 been reproduced in the Horticultural Trade Journal, 

 published in London and seems wholly self-explanatory. 

 It reads as follows : 



"We have just received your favor of May 16th last 

 enclosing advertising contract, and feel greatly obliged. 

 We have given the idea of advertising in The Seed 

 World every consideration and we have decided that 

 for the present we shall not advertise for trade with 

 America, and our reasons are entirely owing to the pres- 

 ent American Seed Law regarding prohibition into 

 America of seeds which do not come up to a certain 

 germination, and from which there is no appeal. 



"No matter if we hold our Government Certificate 

 of Analysis from our testing stations, that is completely 

 ignored by your Government, and consequently large 

 quantities of seeds have been shipped back to this coun- 

 try lately. We have some experience ourselves and we 

 found that the seed which was returned to us is per- 

 fectly sound and within a very small percentage of what 

 it was tested before being shipped from here. Therefore, 

 as then appears to be no appeal from your American 

 Board of Agriculture in the question of germination of 

 seed received, we ourselves are inclined to employ our 

 time and capital in some other markets where the risk 

 is not so considerable, and we may say that we have had 

 some enquiries lately to which we have given a similar 

 reply. 



"Every country to which we ship seeds — and there 

 are many — willingly takes our Government Station's 

 Analysis. 



"We h»pe that there may be some means taken to 

 remedy what we consider an evil." 



