216 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the American vines, France imported the black rot of the 

 grape and had to learn how to combat it, but the vine- 

 yards of France, so far as I know, are as flourishing as 

 they were a generation ago. The wave of prohibition 

 sentiment and legislation has made more difference to the 

 vineyardists of this country already and makes more in 

 France than all the grape 

 diseases which have yet 

 been discovered. 



The shifting character of 

 our plant industries is a 

 matter which should not 

 be lost sight of, I believe, 

 in the consideration of any 

 policy of national indepen- 

 dence of our nurseries. This 

 is true of both our annual 

 and perennial crops, the 

 areas of which are changing 

 constantly. Look at the 

 shift made by the flax area. 

 Flax growing for oil has 

 been pushed clear up into 

 the extreme Northwest, 

 even over into Canada. 

 Consider the abandoned 

 rice fields of the Carolinas 

 and the immense new rice 

 areas in California and 

 Texas. Think of the great 

 pear orchards of Georgia of 

 twenty years ago which 

 have been abandoned and 

 are rapidly going to decay, 

 or the great pear orchard 

 areas in California which are now planted to barley. 

 Consider the ghastly spectacle which Europe now pre- 

 sents where thousands of square miles of forest have 

 been destroyed and strips of land miles in width and 

 hundreds of miles in length have been so torn up by 

 the shell fire that it is unfit for crop cultivation. Think 

 of the readjustments that are going to take place in the 

 agriculture of Europe where whole populations have been 

 either wiped out of existence or find themselves reduced 

 to abject poverty. I walked out under the forest trees 

 on my place in Maryland and considered the changes 

 which have taken place in the policies of the world since 

 they were little seedlings. 



The owner of my property was in those days ready to 

 lay down his life in defence of the principle of slavery. 

 The destruction of the forests was the advocated policy 

 of the time. The discovery of papejr pulp had not been 

 made. The match and kerosene and gasoline and all the 

 great chemical discoveries were still unmade when those 

 trees were little seedlings. And when I look ahead and 

 try to imagine what will be the situation in this country 

 with regard to the plants which constitute our forests 

 and our agriculture by the time the seedlings under my 

 feet are grown up, I cannot feel the same degree of con- 

 fidence which some people seem to have, that we can 



DISEASE-RESISTANT CHESTNUTS 



A block of the Chinese Chestnut, Castanea mollissima, which inoculation experi- 

 ments have shown to be quite resistant to the chestnut bark disease. The 

 seed from which these young plants were grown was collected in China by Frank 

 N. Meyer, Agricultural Explorer, and the plants were sent to experimenters 

 in the area where the native chestnut was killed by the chestnut bark disease. 

 It forms too small a tree to take the place of our American chestnut, but it 

 produces excellent sweet nuts. 



decide now a policy which will protect these little seed- 

 lings for the next hundred years, in the face of the 

 gigantic changes in transportation and commerce which 

 those years will produce. 



We can say to ourselves, "let us be independent of 

 foreign plant production. Let us protect our own by 



building a wall of quaran- 

 tine regulations and keep 

 out all the diseases which 

 our agricultural crops are 

 heir to and have this great 

 advantage over the rest of 

 the world." But the whole 

 trend of the world is toward 

 greater intercourse, more 

 frequent exchange of com- 

 modities, less isolation, and 

 a greater mixture of the 

 plants and plant products 

 over the face of the globe. 



It seems to me that it 

 will require the keenest re- 

 search talent, the vastest 

 amount of knowledge, the 

 greatest ingenuity, un- 

 thought of amounts of 

 money, and the wisest pos- 

 sible legislation to prevent 

 the spread of the diseases 

 of our economic plants and 

 I cannot help feeling that 

 each disease will require 

 individual consideration 

 and special legislation per- 

 haps, and that in the end 

 there will be some sad failures and that mankind will not 

 be able to preserve from destruction all the species of plants 

 which he loves, even though he does devote to the task 

 more intelligent labor than he has given to the preserva- 

 tion of the great food animals of the world which are so 

 rapidly disappearing from its surface. 



How far the restriction of plant immigration will lead 

 to the building up of our horticulture and forestry it is 

 difficult to say. The restriction of the breeder and the 

 nurseryman in the species which he would have at his 

 disposal would tend to limit his activity and his interest 

 and slow down the process of the production of new forms. 

 I believe there is no stimulus to the breeding and selec- 

 tion of plants which is greater than that produced by the 

 placing in one's hands of other and different forms from 

 those which one is accustomed to have about, and it 

 seems to be an undoubted fact that the creation of new 

 hybrid forms depends largely upon the possession of many 

 species of a genus which can be crossed and recrossed 

 until the desirable characters of all are gathered into one or 

 more superlative hybrids which possess the great commer- 

 cial value which is sought after. Any policy which slows 

 down the active work of the country in this most impor- 

 tant regard should be scrutinized with the greatest care and, 

 if necessary, modified so as to allow of its development. 



