Januaby 9, 1010. 



The Florists' Review 



TO 



PROTEST 



AGAINST THE 



Horticultural Import Prohibition 



You are, of course, familiar with the 

 recent ruling of the Federal Horticul- 

 tural Board, at Washington, which pro- 

 hibits, after June 1, 1919, the importa- 

 tion of all plants and bulbs, in which the 

 nursery, seed and florists' trades are in- 

 terested, excepting the following few 

 items: Lily bulbs, lily of the valley, 

 hyacinths, tulips, narcissi and crocus — 

 absolutely nothing else in the line of 

 bulbs can be imported from any foreign 

 country. 



[n the line of plants you may bring 

 in fruit-tree stocks, seedlings, cuttings 

 and scions of fruit trees, and you may 

 import Manetti, multiflora and rugosa 

 rose stocks for budding or grafting, but 

 absolutely nothing else in the way of 

 plants. 



Do you realize how radical and far- 

 reaching this embargo is, and how se- 

 riously it will affect, not only every im- 

 porter, but every individual in the trade 

 who handles bulbs, plants or cut flowers; 

 from the largest importer down to the 

 smallest grower, florist or dealer? 



There will be no azaleas, rhododen- 

 drons, spiraeas, araucarias, dracsenas or 

 boxwoods. Orchids will only be a mem- 

 ory, and there will be missing in our 

 stores and in our gardens hundreds of 

 other varieties of plants and cut flowers 

 for which, heretofore, we have depended 

 upon European sources and which were 

 profitable for the American grower to 

 develop, and were a source of revenue 

 to the retailer. 



Many of these subjects will never be 

 produced in this country a.nd such that, 

 after years of preparation, may become 

 developed here will necessarily have to 

 be sold at a price which will make them 

 prohibitive to the average present pur- 

 chaser of this class of stock. " 



One of the peculiar points in this 

 ruling of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board, which we are unable to harmon- 

 ize with the board's effort to prevent 

 the risk of importing dangerous pests, is 

 the fact that they consider it safe to 

 import Manetti, multiflora and rugosa 

 roses for budding and grafting purposes, 

 but do not consider it safe to let these 

 same roses come in with named varieties, 

 such as Killarney, Ophelia, Radiance or 

 other sorts, grafted or budded upon 

 them. The root of the Manetti, the mul- 

 tiflora or the rugosa remains the same, 

 but the top will be that of the named 

 variety, i. e., Killarney, Ophelia, Ra- 



diance or whatever the variety may be, 

 and it is absolutely impossible for an 

 insect to be imported on the one and not 

 on the other. So, why should these rose 

 stocks be permitted to come in (in which 

 only a few growers who graft or bud 

 roses are interested or benefited) and 

 the named varieties, in which practically 

 everyone who grows and sells plants is 

 interested, be excluded? 



Furthermore, if it is safe to import 

 a lily bulb, a lily of the valley, a hya- 

 cinth, tulip, narcissus or crocus, what in- 

 festation affects the hundreds of other 

 bulbs that are excluded which justifies 

 the board to say: "You are not to bring 

 in a dahlia, tuberous-rooted begonia, 

 gloxinia, gladiolus, Spanish iris, oxalis, 

 scilla, snowdrop, crown imperial or other 

 equally harmless bulb?" 



There have been two meetings of the 

 Federal Horticultural Board, at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, during the last six months, 

 one of them on May 28, the other on 

 October 18, to which all interested in 

 this subject were invited to be present 

 and to offer protests, if any. At both 

 , meetings the Nurserymen's Association, 

 as well as the legislative committee of 

 the Society of American Florists, and a 

 number of individual growers were pres- 

 ent, all of whom gave valuable data for 

 the proper enlightenment of said Federal 

 Horticultural Board. They were most 

 cordially received, attentively and pa- 

 tiently listened to — even thanked — for 

 the information given, but that is all. 



Why all this information which was 

 given in good faith has been turned 

 down, the Federal Horticultural Board 

 does not tell us; they simply say: 

 "After June 1, 1919, you cannot import 

 anything but the few items in bulbs, 

 fruit-tree stocks and roses for grafting 

 purposes noted above." 



Whether the action taken by the 

 Federal Horticultural Board is in ac- 

 cordance with the law as enacted by 

 Congress, which created their power, 

 we do not feel competent to pass upon, 

 but we are satisfied, however, and con- 

 fident that it was not intended as the 

 spirit of this act, that the policies and 

 destinies of the entire horticultural 

 trade, with its millions of dollars of in- 

 vestment, should be placed in the hands 

 of five members of the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



Your cdngressman has the means of 

 finding this out, and if you will appeal 



to him for aid in the matter we are cer- 

 tain that he will investigate and see to 

 it that such power, if it exists, is changed 

 so that the horticultural trade will be 

 placed in the high position to which it 

 is entitled. 



Finally: For more than four years 

 our country has cheerfully assisted and 

 helped to keep a great portion of the 

 Belgian population from starving; this 

 embraces the great plant-growing dis- 

 tricts around Ghent and Bruges, where, 

 before the war, upwards of one thou- 

 sand nurseries were operated, a large 

 part of whose products was exported to 

 the United States. We have sent our 

 kin and friends to bleed on the battle- 

 fields of devastated Belgium to help to 

 return these people to freedom, and, now 

 that this has been accomplished and 

 they are preparing to take up their cus- 

 tomary vocations in anticipation of sup- 

 porting themselves as they have always 

 bountifully done before, and they come 

 to us and offer us their horticultural 

 specialties, as they did before the war, 

 the majority of which we cannot procure 

 elsewhere or which we cannot produce 

 ourselves, we will have to hold our hands 

 up in horror and say: 



' ' While we have cheerfully helped to 

 feed and clothe you, and while our sol- 

 diers have died on the battlefield to give 

 you your freedom, we cannot buy your 

 azaleas, bay trees, Norfolk Island pines, 

 rhododendrons, palms, your begonias, 

 gloxinias and other specialties (as badly 

 as we need them) because there is a Fed- 

 eral Horticultural Board of five men in 

 Washington who, while they have no 

 record that you have in the past sent us 

 any insect pests that have been danger- 

 ous to our country, fear that there 

 may be such pests hidden away in your 

 country and that these might, in leaf 

 or soil, escape the rigid examination 

 which your entomologists give them be- 

 fore you ship them, and that they might 

 even escape the careful examination 

 which our State and Federal Depart- 

 ments give them on their arrival here, 

 and thus become a serious menace. 

 While you continue to have our sym- 

 pathy, we cannot think of purchasing 

 your horticultural products! " 



Think it over, and if you want to 

 assist to place horticulture in its proper 

 position, write to your congressman at 

 once. He will stand by what is right if 

 you submit the facts properly to him. 



HENRY A. DREER, 



714-716 Chestnut Street, i- «i 

 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



McHUTCHISON & CO. 



95 Chambers Street, 



NEW YORK, N. Y. 





