Mat 22, 1919. 



The Horists' Review 



25 



THE APFROACHINa QUARANTINE. 



As It Looks to a Boetonian. 



A careful perusal of the views of 

 those who support Quarantine No. 37, 

 which will soon go into force, shows 

 clearly that the horticulturists who side 

 with the Federal Horticultural Board do 

 so from business reasons; not because 

 they have any fear of insect foes, but 

 because they believe that with foreign 

 competition eliminated they can secure 

 higher prices for goods which they can 

 propagate and grow, plants which 

 would, probably, in the majority of 

 cases have not been easy to dispose of 

 unless "protected." The specious 

 arguments used by the supporters of the 

 quarantine show clearly that it was the 

 fiscal and not the insect legislation 

 they favored. 



The F. H. B. introduced the quaran- 

 tine as a protection against enemy alien 

 insects and diseases. They are driven 

 to defend it as a fiscal piece of legisla- 

 tion which Congress never gave them 

 powers to enact and practically their 

 entire support comes from firms or in- 

 dividuals who do not care a brass far- 

 thing about what pests come in and have 

 not, except in rare cases, expressed any 

 concern on this point, but who see vis- 

 ions of wealth if their own particular 

 little enterprises are protected by such 

 a Chinese wall as Quarantine 37. 



It Makes Us Smile. 



The statement of the F. H. B. that 

 the quarantine is * * scientific ' ' is enough 

 to make the most grouchy individual 

 smile. It is just the reverse of scien- 

 tific and a man needs to be possessed 

 of brazen effrontery or a sense of humor 

 to term it "scientific." The measure 

 as it is, however, will soon become law, 

 as the board evidently felt that they 

 must stand or fall with the measure. 



The board some time ago, in answer- 

 ing a letter of objections, stated that 

 they were open to receive "construc- 

 tive suggestions." I made a number, 

 but these, with other pointed queries, 

 were entirely ignored in their succeed- 

 ing reply. The board, entrenched at 

 Washington with its solid phalanx of 

 entomologists, plant pathologists and 

 bacteriologists, complains because busy 

 florists and nurserymen do not pay ear 

 fares from long distances to hold "pub- 

 lic meetings" with a board which does 

 not contain a solitary practical horti- 

 culturist and which, supported by its 

 lone horticultural adviser, simply 

 snapped its fingers at the whole horti- 

 cultural industry of the country. 



Crowding It Down. 



What can be thought of a government 

 board whose chief adviser stated in a 

 public meeting in Boston that "this 

 quarantine is going into force June 1 

 and will stay there forever, no matter 

 whether you pass forty resolutions here 

 today, and all the orchids and other 

 flowers you mention don't amount to a 

 bagatelle"? It was a statement made 

 without any qualification, and this said 

 board, when asked if they approved of 

 such language, replied that they "were 

 afraid you did not see Dr. Galloway's 

 viewpoint "! The audience saw it plain- 

 ly, and it was that a man who had been 

 supported by florists for years had got- 

 ten into a position where he felt he 

 could snap his fingers at the entire 

 trade. 



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WHO'S WHO ML AND WHY 



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HABBY A. BABNAKD. 



DESIGNED primarily to keep out bugs. Quarantine No. 37,will have the effect 

 of depriving the trade in America of many things which could do no harm 

 and which cannot be replaced. One of them is the periodical visit of Harry A. 

 Barnard, unique among salesmen. Mr. Barnard is now making his eleventh trip 

 in this country. He crossed the ocean eight times while the submarines were 

 being subjugated, but he will not come again unless the quarantine is modified. 

 Mr. Barnard's firm, Stuart Low & Co., Bushhill Park, England, are plantsmen; 

 practically everything they sell is barred by the quarantine. Mr. Barnard is 72 

 years of age and has been in the employ of the firm fifty-nine years, through three 

 generations of proprietors, a record probably unique in the horticultural trades. 

 We shall miss him because of his great good nature and the fund of information 

 he brings with him of trade conditions on the other side of the Atlantic. 



I have had considerable correspond- 

 ence with the board relative to orchids. 

 I received a list of 100 pests or there- 

 abouts which have been "identified" 

 on orchids. The most serious were 

 mealy bug, scale, orchid midge, cock- 

 roaches and cattleya fly. A further re- 

 ply on my part to this letter brought 

 answer that the great danger from al- 

 lowing orchids to come in was that "cer- 

 tain tropical ants" might come in with 

 them. When asked face to face in 

 Washington by a prominent New Jersey 

 orchid grower if these ants would not 

 come in just the same if orchids were 

 debarred, they had no answer. They, 

 however, urged him (and others, I pre- 

 sume) to "propagate their orchids at 

 home," presumably, I suppose, in the 

 same way as geraniums and mums! Is 

 it not shameful that the entire orchid 

 industry should be threatened with 



practical paralysis for the trivial rea- 

 sons the board has enumerated? 



How About Onion Bulbs? 



Our importations of bulbs are to be 

 limited to six varieties hereafter. The 

 board cannot tell us that there is any 

 more danger in allowing iris, snowdrops, 

 chionodoxas, scillas, gladioli and bego- 

 nias to come in than with tulips, hy- 

 acinths, crocus, lilies, valley and nar- 

 cissi and they cannot name any pests 

 which have come in on bulbs in the 

 past. Nor can they explain to us why 

 thousands of tons of onions, which are 

 bulbs, can come in uninspected and be 

 spread broadcast over the country, any 

 more than they can tell us why thou- 

 sands of bales of peat moss litter for 

 bedding can come from countries whose 

 boxwoods, bay trees, rhododendrons and 

 azaleas are debarred because of the 



