WHOSE INTERESTS 



X ARE PARAMOUNT? 



There is sure to be radical divergence of opinion as to excluding 

 plant imports— "it makes a great deal of difference whose ox is gored"— 

 hut a quarantine unquestionably will be a powerful influence in the 

 development of American products, to encourage which the S.A.F. has 

 a standing committee. 



NDEE the heading/ ' Here 's 

 Another Menace," in The 

 Eeview for January 18, 

 which has just reached me 

 here at Eureka, Cal., the 

 editor has opened the dis- 

 cussion on a question of 

 the utmost importance to 

 the future welfare of the 

 horticultural, nursery and 

 florists' interests of this continent. 



The nursery and florists' trade of 

 America will do well to take into con- 

 sideration and early prepare for a fed- 

 eral embargo pronibiting the importa- 

 tion of all florists' plants and nursery 

 stock except under the most stringent 

 restrictions. 



This embargo, in my opinion, will be 

 justified upon the ground of the enor- 

 mous losses already sustained 

 by the above mentioned in- 

 dustries and by the people 

 generally, caused by the dis- 

 tribution of San Jose scale, 

 gipsy and brown tail moth, 

 citrus white fly, black and 

 purple scale, citrus canker, 

 chestnut fungus, hickory 

 wireworm, white pine blis- 

 ter rust and many other pests 

 from foreign lands, the losses 

 already caused to this coun- 

 try far exceeding the total 

 value of all the imports of 

 plants of every description 

 during the last sixty years. 



Some Examples. 



The loss from San Jose 

 scale alone to the fruit grow- 

 ing and nursery business of 

 America may be counted at 

 $500,000,000 since its impor- 

 tation from Japan. The loss 

 from the gipsy and brown-tail 

 moth bids fair to exceed 

 $100,000,000 before the pest 

 may be controlled. The loss 

 to the potato growers of the 

 United States, caused by let- 

 ting loose the potato bug 

 from its narrow valley in 

 Colorado, will probably ex- 

 ceed $1,000,000,000 during the 

 last sixty years. The loss to 

 citrus growers of Florida, 

 Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas 

 and California, ensuing from 

 the introduction of purple 

 scale, black scale and citrus 

 white fly, will run into hun- 

 dreds of millions of dollars 

 and eventually destroy the 

 Ameriean citrus industry un- 



By CHARLES WILLIS WARD, 



Chiiiiman S. A. F. Comniittee on Development of 

 American Products. 



less some positive means of control can 

 bo found. 



Citrus canker, lately imported from 

 Japan into Florida and Louisiana, al- 

 ready threatens the elimination of the 

 orange and grape fruit as commercial 

 crops in those states. 



Blister Rust and Hickory Worm. 



Already California has placed an ab- 

 solute prohibitive embargo upon the im- 

 portation into the state of citrus plants 

 or fruit of any kind from Japan, Flor- 

 ida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana or 

 Texas. 



The latest importation from foreign 

 lands, the white pine blister rust, is 



Charles Willis Ward. 



(From a photograph made at San Francisco on his flfty-nlnth birthday 

 anniversary, December 11, 1916.) 



bound to annihilate one of our most 

 valued timber trees and most beautiful 

 coniferous evergreens unless some now 

 unknown means is found to prevent its 

 ])henomenally rapid spread. Billions of 

 dollars could never replace the loss of 

 Pinus Strobus to the American conti- 

 nent. 



Already the chestnut fungus has de- 

 stroyed the chestnut forests of Long 

 Island, and for 100 miles up the Hud- 

 son. Pennsylvania is rapidly losing her 

 chestnut forests and the disease has at- 

 tacked the chestnuts of West Virginia 

 and southwestern Virginia. In twenty 

 years more America will have lost her 

 last native chestnut if some means now 

 unknown is not discovered to check the 

 spread of the disease. 



The hickory wireworm has destroyed 

 every hickory tree on the Cot- 

 tage Gardens wooded lot at 

 Queens, L. I., during the last 

 four years and in five years 

 more not a single live hick- 

 ory tree will be found on all 

 Long Island and probably 

 New Jersey as well. 



The introduction of the 

 coddling moth into the state 

 of Michigan wiped out ap- 

 ple raising as an industry for 

 nearly two decades. 



Chestnut Fungus. 



Perhaps my own experience 

 with the chestnut fungus on 

 Long Island may be interest- 

 ing. In 1900 the Cottage 

 Gardens wooded lot of eighty 

 acres boasted of some 200 to 

 300 handsome native chest- 

 nuts, bearing bountiful an- 

 nual crops of splendid nuts. 



In 1901 we imported a few 

 small Japan chestnuts from 

 the orient. The next season 

 I noticed some curious burned 

 tips on the young, succulent 

 growth. The next year all 

 the imported trees were dead 

 and for the first time I no- 

 ticed the burned tips on some 

 of the native chestnuts in the 

 edge of the forest. In. another 

 year these native trees also 

 were dead and five years aft- 

 erward every chestnut tree 

 on the entire eighty acres had 

 been destroyed. And today 

 there is no known method to 

 check the disease. Four years 

 ago two or three hickory 

 trees suddenly died, without 

 any apparent reason. Today 



