282 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



count of the danger of importing San Jose scale. Other European 

 governments became immediately interested, Holland among them. 

 Before issuing a decree, however, the Netherlands Government sent 

 its leading expert, Ritzema Bos, to the United States to investigate 

 the seriousness of the trouble. He arrived in Washington and, call- 

 ing at the office, learned that I was in California. He was given my 

 address in San Francisco, and immediately started for the Pacific 

 Coast under the impression that a journey in the United States, while 

 longer than a journey in Holland, was still not the serious matter 

 that it proved to be. After a continuous train journey of 6 days 

 (3,000 miles) he arrived at San Francisco late at night, and early 

 the next morning sent his card to me at the old Occidental Hotel, 

 and we took breakfast together. We talked for possibly an hour about 

 the situation. I was very keen on the San Jose scale question at the 

 time, and told him all that he seemed to wish to know. An hour 

 later he took the train back to New York, and from there the vessel 

 to Holland. 



In 1902 I called on him at his Amsterdam laboratory, and found 

 him to be the extremely courteous, highly placed, well informed man 

 that I had supposed him to be from his reputation and from our 

 brief interview in San Francisco. On later visits to Europe I saw 

 him at work in his laboratories at Wageningen, where he was 

 evidently esteemed as a man of the highest standing and of great 

 importance. 



In 1907, on my return from south Russia, I attended the meetings 

 of the Seventh International Congress of Agriculture at Vienna, and 

 at the meeting of the Section of Economic Zoology I found Ritzema 

 Bos in the chair. The sul)ject under discussion was the value of 

 birds to agriculture, and the chairman invited me to take part. I 

 explained the imjiortant investigations l>eing carried on by the Bio- 

 logical Survey of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and 

 insisted that such an investigation should be carried on in European 

 countries before decrees should be promulgated for the protection of 

 all birds. 



In 192 1 Ritzema Bos again visited the United States, in the 

 interests of the Dutch bulb growers and in protest against Quaran- 

 tine No. 37 of the Federal Horticultm-al IJoard. I told him about the 

 work of the Bureau and introduced him to the workers here. In the 

 Visitors' Book of the Bureau he is registered as ex-Professor of 

 Entomology and Phytopathology and ex-Chief of the Holland Phy- 

 topathological Service. He had already at that date retired from 

 official work. 



