January 18, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



THE PLANT EMBARGO MENACE 



ili. New Plan! "Quarantine" i : I 

 Regulation No. "." is effective mi and 

 after June 1st, 1919, less Chan five 

 months hence. 



It provides. 1st. Under regulation 

 No :; tor only the following allowed 

 Bulb Imports: Lily bulbs, Lily of the 

 valley, narcissus, hyacinths, tulips. 

 Crocus, and these only when packed 

 tree from sand, soil or earth and again 

 only "under permit where a particu- 

 lar purpose is specified, for that pur- 

 pose and no other." 



2nd. When dry packed (which is 

 impracticable tor lily bulbs to insure 

 their safe arrival and keeping in cold 

 storage), they can only be unpacked 

 and entered in New York, Boston, 

 Seattle and San Francisco, which 

 means no through-in-bond shipments 

 to interior cities, such as Chicago, 

 Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc., etc. 



3rd. Each case must bear a label 

 giving Name and Address of Exporter. 

 Name and Address of Importer ami 

 Number of Permit. This means that 

 you are forced to advertise to every- 

 one throughout the districts through 

 which these cases must pass, the name 

 and address of your supplier, often a 

 secret source that you have sought for 

 years to obtain and now to be given 

 publicity to all interested whether 

 large or small alike. 



4th. The shipments at port of 

 arrival (which must likewise be port 

 of entry and payment of duty), pro- 

 vides for inspection and fumigation 

 under certain eventualities. This 

 means that when your goods arrive 

 at the point of debarkation from the 

 vessel, you must give a bond pending 

 the time the inspector will examine 

 such case as he likes, meantime the 

 goods remain on the wharf at perils 

 of weather, incurring expenses for 

 demurrage, etc., etc. Should the in- 

 spector pass the case, then each and 

 every State Inspector of Nurseries in 

 his State through which any package 

 or packages are destined, must be ad 

 vised of the shipment and likewise 

 subjected to further delay to handling 

 of goons at final point of destination, 

 ohould the Inspector at original port 

 of arrival find it necessary to fumi- 

 gate the case, it would practically 

 mean destruction of the goods or mak- 

 ing them unfit for the growers' use. 



5th. All future imports of amaryl- 

 lis, anemone, begonias, eremuri, free- 

 ;ias, galanthus, gladiolus, gloxineas. 

 i> se o n i e s. ranunculus, snowdrops, 

 soillas and hundreds of other useful 



varieties of luilhs are prohibited. This 

 means I h;il although the intent ol I he 

 act was to only protect against all 

 peSts and diseases that might be deiri 

 mental to the health and welfare of 

 the Horticultural interests of the 

 United States, that in reality it means 

 restriction against certain classes of 

 bulbs, which are in no way more apt 

 to carry any disease or pests than 

 other varieties of bulbs, etc., that are 

 allowed to come in under the act. For 

 instance, if dry packed narcissus, 

 tulips, and hyacinths are recognized 

 as being non-carriers Of pests, why 

 should anemone, begonias, gladiolus, 

 iris or scillas. etc., which can be simi- 

 larly dry packed, be prohibited? 



Again, where all future imports of 

 araucarias, baytrees, boxwood, ever- 

 greens, fruit trees, and vines, nursery- 

 stock, rose bushes, rhododendrons, etc.. 

 etc., are forbidden. 



Seedling Wild Roses and Fruit Tree 

 Stocks May Be Imported 



and these can carry disease and in- 

 jurious insects as well as the thou- 

 sands of varieties of trees, plants and 

 vines that are excluded. We can no 

 longer import wonderful orchids from 

 their native habitats; the paeony crea- 

 tions of the great French Hybridizers 

 such as Dessert and LeMoine, the 

 latter's splendid novelties in lilacs, 

 philadelphus, deutzias, etc., must keep 

 away from these shores. Blackmore 

 and Langdon's fine begonias, Wallace's 

 world renowned iris, the fine collec- 

 tions of Britisli montbretias, Dickson's 

 fine roses and the wonderful things 

 of other British producers, will not be 

 tolerated here any longer; we must 

 call back our own Wilson, he who col- 

 lected so many valuable plants, roots 

 and bulbs which draw thousands upon 

 thousands to the Arnold Arboretum 

 in Boston, call him back from his 

 present exploring tour of the interior 

 of China and Japan with the state- 

 ment that America does not want any 

 of the plants, etc., that he is taking 

 such great pains to collect. 



Hereafter if we wish to see a good 

 Flower Show we shall have to make 

 a trip to Europe; no longer shall 

 American Horticulturists be able to 

 vie with each other at horticultural 

 events with rarest of novelties im- 

 ported from all parts of the world 

 while the progressive American flower 

 grower will have to content himself 

 to struggle through the Christmas, 

 !*<:< er and other important holidays 



without azaleas, rhododendrons, palms 

 and other necessary material which 

 form the products of a large percent- 

 age of that wonderful nation to which 

 the world today owes so much, that 

 small bul intrepid Belgium. 



While we are feeding and clothing 

 these brave people, who suffered more 

 than any other, we are forbidden to 

 import by our government through 

 this recent act their horticultural 

 products for fear a bug might be 

 hidden in them, a bug, that escaped 

 the rigid examination the Belgium 

 entomologists give all plants and 

 might even escape the careful exami- 

 nation which our State and Federal 

 Departments give them upon their ar- 

 rival here. 



Yet, "We have permission to import 

 millions of lily of the valley which 

 practically all come from Germany" 

 before the war, so that, while thereby 

 favoring the enemy country and peo- 

 ple, we mitigate against the interests 

 of the country we are trying to help. 

 A few misguided people might say: 

 We cannot produce some of the things 

 here and others we can which is the 

 reason that we allow certain things to 

 come in and exclude others. 



This does not at all enter the ques- 

 tion of the protection of home indus- 

 tries and is not within the jurisdiction 

 of the Federal Horticultural Board, 

 who are the advisors to the Secretary 

 of Agriculture, Mr. D. F. Houston, but 

 is a' Tariff question purely and simply. 



We should not permit ourselves to 

 become confused as to this and should 

 be able to discern and understand the 

 purpose of this entire procedure 

 clearly and distinctly to act accord- 

 ingly. Importers, nurserymen, seeds- 

 men, dealers, florists and private bulb 

 and plant users should take immed- 

 iate and continued action to protest 

 to the proper authorities in Washing- 

 ton against the present drastic rules 

 and regulations prescribed by the act, 

 which are discrimatory, unworkable, 

 obnoxious, and, I must say it, ridic- 

 ulous. 



How Shall This Be Done? 

 1st. Those concerns or individuals 

 and foreign shippers and suppliers to 

 the United States of bulbs or plants. 

 either directly or through the medium 

 of their authorized agents here, should 

 at once make protest through the 

 foreign ambassadors at Washington 

 who represent their governments to 

 bring the matter to the attention of 



