80 



HORTICULTURE 



January 25. 1919 



Publicity Finance Committee will 

 meet in joint session at the Hotel 

 Hollenden, Cleveland, on Thursday, 

 January 30th. President J. F. Am- 

 maun will preside. All expecting to 

 be present should make hotel reserva- 

 tions without delay, as the American 

 Carnation Society will be in conven- 

 tion at the hotel at the same time. 

 John Young, Secy, 

 1170 Broadway, New York. 

 January 18, 1919. 



A CORRECTION. 

 In the announcement of officers of 

 the Society for 1919 under the head- 

 ing "Directors under affiliation to 

 serve one year," it should have read, 

 Edwin A. Harvey, Brandywine, Sum- 

 mit, Pa., President Florists' Club of 

 Philadelphia, instead of Alban A. 

 Harvey, as published. 



NEWS FROM BELGIUM. 



A very interesting letter has just 

 been received from F. Sander, Sr., St. 

 Albans, Eng., from which we feel jus- 

 tified in making the following extract: 



Our nurseries in Bruges are safe 

 but the loss is terrible and the four 

 years have taken from me forty years 

 savings. My son Louis who is an 

 officer in the army has had leave from 

 the war office to go to Bruges and is 

 there now and I am anxious to hear 

 his report. At various times I have 

 read your notes on the plant import 

 after June to the United States. If a 

 restriction came it would mean the 

 utter destruction of the Belgium plant 

 trade, and nearly all nurserymen 

 would be ruined. Here, also, the 

 suffering would be great. From Eng- 

 land and Scotland great quantities of 

 plants are exported to America. 



My own place in Bruges, the largest 

 nursery on the continent would also 

 be ruined, thousands of American 

 florists would suffer and the whole 

 trade on both sides feel the great 

 loss enormously. Surely azaleas, or- 

 chids, palms, roses, stove and green- 

 house plants do not carry any disease 

 with them which in any way would 

 hurt plantations." 



Loss estimated at about $4000 was 

 caused by fire at the Harwarth green- 

 houses, Farmington, Conn., leased by 

 Leon Becker. Much of the loss comes 

 from the destruction of thousands of 

 plants, many of which were in bloom 

 or about to bloom. Because of the 

 fire the heating apparatus became in- 

 operative, and the plants in the un- 

 burned sections of the greenhouses 

 perished from cold. 



ARTHUR HERRINGTON AND 



OTHERS PROTEST 



QUARANTINE 



The following letter to Senator Jo- 

 seph S. Frelinghuysen is self-explana- 

 tory. Mr. Herrington and many others 

 in the flower trade have written pro- 

 tests to their representatives against 

 the quarantine. 

 Senator J. S. Frelinghuysen, 



Washington, D. C. 

 Honorable Sir: 



I have just received from the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture a copy of 

 Notice of Quarantine No. 37 with regu- 

 lations and write you to express my 

 most emphatic protest against the 

 drastic and discriminatory character 

 of the same. 



To me it is inconceivable that a few 

 men should be permitted to exercise 

 such sweeping powers and to promul- 

 gate and enforce a restriction at once 

 needless and unfair. 



The order as it stands today and 

 which becomes operative on and after 

 June 1 next, abounds in glaring in- 

 equalities I might almost say imbecil- 

 ities so far as some of the conditions 

 therein expressed are concerned. For 

 example, the admitting of stocks and 

 wild species of roses to be used in this 

 country for grafting thereon choice 

 varieties of roses, and yet actual rose 

 plants of varieties raised in European 

 countries and of which new and im- 

 proved varieties are continually being 

 raised, are denied to the country. 



There is an old moss grown joke 

 about the man who killed his dog to 

 cure him of fleas and the action of the 

 Federal Horticultural Board regard- 

 ing roses is about as sensible. 



Imagine, too, the total exclusion of 

 orchids. They are denizens of tropi- 

 cal countries and under cultivation 

 must always be kept in greenhouses. 

 I wonder what terrible calamity the 

 members of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board pipe-dreamed of when they ex- 

 cluded these choicest and rarest of 

 "Floras" creations. These are just 

 casually selected subjects to show the 

 unfair discrimination I complain of. 

 I could enumerate others but do 

 not wish to write you at wearisome 

 length, yet I must cite one more point 

 which seems to indicate a queer sort 

 of patriotism if there be any at all in 

 the hearts of the members of the Fed- 

 eral Horticultural Board. 



Lily of the valley is one of the per- 

 mitted introductions under the new 

 quarantine order. The roots of this 

 flower are imported annually in mil- 

 lions by florists for forcing purposes 

 and the true and actual source of all 



of this special forcing lily of the val- 

 ley stock is Germany. Contrast this 

 concession with how the Federal Hor- 

 ticultural Board has treated poor de- 

 vastated Belgium. For years and years 

 before the war Belgium sent us bay 

 trees, azaleas, palms, rhododendrons, 

 Norfolk Island pines and many other 

 products in larger quantity and of 

 better quality than any other country 

 in the world. These are highly- 

 developed specialties of the Belgian 

 trade. We cannot produce them here 

 so it is not a question of protecting 

 home industries, yet just when Bel- 

 gium is ready to make an effort to 

 supply us with things we have not 

 had and have sadly missed in the past 

 four years the Federal Horticultural 

 Board says they shall not be permitted 

 entry to the country under any 

 conditions. 



The object sought by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture through this quar- 

 antine regulation, namely, the exclu- 

 sion of possible pests and disease does 

 not, in my opinion, having consider- 

 able knowledge of the facts, warrant 

 this extremely drastic action. 

 Yours truly, 



Arthub Herbington. 



January 15, 1919. 



VALUELESS GOURDS 



Department of Agriculture officials 

 again warn farmers and gardeners not 

 to be fooled by extravagant claims in 

 advertisements of two varieties of ed- 

 ible gourds, long known but little 

 grown in this country, which are 

 treated in the advertisements as 

 "butter beans" of rare quality and 

 high productivity. Vague but glowing 

 and extravagant claims are made for 

 them. 



The food value of these gourds is 

 similar to that of summer squash, ac- 

 cording to department officials, and 

 they are interesting as curiosities, but 

 have slight practical worth. 



The name, Gigantic New Guinea 

 Butter Bean, has been loaded onto the 

 Cucutza or sweet gourd. It is fre- 

 quently found in Italian vegetable 

 gardens and is offered in the markets 

 of New Orleans, but is considered of 

 such little value that seedsmen rarely 

 give it notice. It has been reported 

 to the department that this so-called 

 new bean has been offered at extrava- 

 gant prices, for example, 6 of the 

 gourd seeds for 50 cents, or 16 for $1. 



The Snake or Solomon Island Gourd 

 also has been renamed in certain ad- 

 vertisements as Guada Bean. This 

 gourd can be grown only in warm 

 climates and is adapted to rather lim- 

 ited regions in the southern part of 

 the United States. 



