HORTICULTURE 



March 29, 1919 



THE PLANT EMBARGO MENACE 



ANOTHER PROTEST. 

 Editor Horticulture: 



Dear Sir — After reading with care 

 the many arguments for and against 

 Quarantine Order No. 37. I have sent 

 a personal protest to our Michigan 

 congressmen against the Order. I am 

 especially in favor of the suggestions 

 on the circular letter from the 

 Board of Park Commissioners, Minne- 

 apolis; the objections published in the 

 National Nurseryman are also par- 

 ticularly well stated. 



It may be of interest to your read- 

 ers to see the following sentences in 

 a recent letter from E. A. Bowles, Esq., 

 the great English amateur, high in 

 office in the Royal Horticultural 

 society. "I read with dismay of your 

 prohibiting the importation of plants 

 in such a way that American gardens 

 will be kept waiting for our best 

 things for a decade at least. Even if 

 in that time your nurseries can propa- 

 gate the stocks from the few admitted, 

 I think you will with such agitation, 

 do the cause of good gardening far 

 more harm than you will thereby 

 benefit the pecuniary side of your 

 nurseries. The wide spread trials of 

 new plants by amateurs is the way to 

 find new things suitable for fine ef- 

 fects. The nurserymen follow on later 

 and propagate the treasures the 

 amateur has discovered." 



Speaking now for myself, this or- 

 der works a great hardship upon fine 

 flower gardeners and collectors in this 

 country. I sincerely hope to see it 

 either very greatly modified or re- 

 scinded altogether and have so ex- 

 pressed myself to Secretary Houston. 



I write from an entirely personal 

 standpoint. These opinions are in no 

 way related to possible ones of any 

 horticultural organizations with which 

 I am connected. The proposals looking 

 toward a Chamber of Horticulture for 

 America also interest me greatly; I 

 hope something definite may come of 

 them. 



Very truly yours, 



Louisa Y. Kino. 



Alma, Michigan. 



PROHIBITION OF IMPORTS OF 



PLANTS INTO THE UNITED 



STATES. 



British horticulturists have learned 

 ■with great surprise and regret that 

 the United States proposes to prohibit, 

 as from June 1 of this year, the im- 

 portation of many kinds of plants and 

 bulbs. This decision will affect very 



seriously those members of the horti- 

 cultural trade in this country who had 

 made it their business to supply the 

 requirements of America. They have 

 devoted many years to building up 

 this business, and certain of the plants 

 which they raise for this purpose are 

 of slow growth; these nurserymen 

 have, therefore, sunk a considerable 

 amount of capital in it. Now, peremp- 

 torily and without warning, it is de- 

 clared that the American ports are to 

 be closed to their produce. It is to be 

 hoped that vigorous representations 

 will be made by the Government of 

 this country, and that the hardship 

 due to the suddenness of the decision 

 will be urged with the object of se- 

 curing at least a delay in putting the 

 regulation into practice. It is said — 

 we cannot believe either authoritative- 

 ly or seriously — that the object of the 

 regulation is to guard the United 

 States against the immigration into 

 that country of pests in the shape of 

 insect or fungous diseases which 

 might do damage to the cultivated 

 plants already growing there. Al- 

 though each nation must be a law unto 

 itself with respect to its fiscal policy, 

 all nations have an interest in secur- 

 ing that each shall act according to 

 the dictates of common sense and 

 with regard to the teachings of 

 science. We are unable, therefore, to 

 believe that we can be correctly in- 

 formed with respect to the reasons 

 which have led to the prohibition it 

 is proposed to enforce. For it is quite 

 certain that, whatever other effect It 

 may have, it will not prevent the ar- 

 rival of pests in America. To prevent 

 this, the absolute exclusion of all 

 vegetable produce would be neces- 

 sary; for example, the American 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, which has 

 done such admirable work in intro- 

 ducing from all parts of the world 

 plants of economic potentiality, would 

 have to stop its enterprise. So long as 

 it continues, no member of the U. S. 

 A, Federal Board of Horticulture 

 would be able to sleep in his bed 

 without the chronic nightmare of the 

 possible introduction of some pest on 

 the earth attached to the roots of the 

 plants which the Bureau collects from 

 all parts of the world, not excepting 

 British Possessions. It is a grimly 

 ironical fact, on which we have com- 

 mented more than once, that the plant 

 pathologist, who, in so far as he Is 

 concerned with horticulture at all, has 

 as his main duty the discovery of 

 remedies for plant diseases, is so 



modest of his own powers in this di- 

 rection that he is often among the 

 first of those who clamour for re- 

 strictions on the free exchange of liv- 

 ing commodities. We are of opinion 

 that in adopting this course of action 

 as a means of excluding chance pests 

 the pathologist takes the narrow in- 

 stead of the broad view. The United 

 Kingdom has suffered much from in- 

 troduced American plant pests, but it 

 is probable, nay, certain, that the ad- 

 vantage which this country has gained 

 by the introduction of the plants 

 which bore those pests is many hun- 

 dred times greater than the disadvan- 

 tages. Decisions arrived at by a State 

 have to be respected, even though 

 they press hardly on other communi- 

 ties; but it may be said without fear 

 of contradiction that if this particular 

 decision is based upon a desire to ex- 

 clude pests, it is a wrong decision, 

 and one which will press at least as 

 hardly on the horticulturists of the 

 United States as upon those of 

 Europe. We could, therefore, urge 

 our colleagues in America to use all 

 their influence in pressing for an im- 

 mediate reconsideration of this quest- 

 Ion.— From the Gardeners' Chronicle. 



TO ADMIT FLOWER BULBS. 

 The following is a copy of a letter 

 sent to Secretary Houston of the de- 

 partment of agriculture by M. C. Ebel, 

 secretary of the National Gardeners' 

 Association, relative to Quarantine 

 Bill No. 37. 



Hon. David F. Houston, Secretary, 

 Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, D. C: 

 Sir: — I have just come in possession 

 of a bulletin issued by the Office of 

 Information, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, entitled. Amend Plant Quaran- 

 tine to Admit Flower Bulbs, which 

 states that certain bulbs may be 

 brought in provided that the material 

 in which the bulbs are packed "has 

 been previously sterilized in accord- 

 ance with methods prescribed by the 

 Federal Horticultural Board." 



It continues: "This provision Is 

 amendatory to Regulation 3 . . . . 

 It was brought to the attention of the 

 board, however that dry earth is the 

 only suitable material known for pack- 

 ing these bulbs, and experts of the 

 Department of Agriculture advised 

 that such material can be cheaply and 



satisfactorily sterilized " 



Now, Mr. Secretary, that the Fed- 

 eral Horticultural Board admits its 

 lack of knowledge and confessed that 



