Janoabt 29, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



29 



Borden could not make the trip from 

 the coast. Charles H. Grakelow was 

 delayed en route from Philadelphia, but 

 got there at last. 



The board spent two full days, hold- 

 ing five sessions in that time and work- 

 ing far into the night. Much business 

 was transacted, most of which com- 



prised details incidental to carrying 

 out decisions made in October at Buf- 

 falo. That called for amending some 

 of the by-laws, which required great 

 care. 



One of the new moves of the F. T. D. 

 was announced in The Review last week, 

 that of suspending delinquents. An- 



other proposed undertaking is the issu- 

 ing of a bond, which a member may 

 show his customers as a guarantee of 

 the integrity of the florist to whom an 

 order is sent. Various other steps in 

 the progress of wire service were taken, 

 which will be announced as the plans 

 for their carrying out are completed. 



CONTEST NEW JERSEY QUARANTINE 



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F. H. B. HOIJ>S BEETLE HEABINO. 



Spirited Discussion on Quarantine. 



The hearing of the Federal Horticul- 

 tural Board January 27 at its rooms in 

 Washington, D. C, on the proposed ex- 

 tension of the quarantine against the 

 Japanese beetle in certain townships in 

 Burlington and Camden counties, New 

 Jersey, was attended by about twenty 

 persons in addition to the board and 

 other federal officials. There were pres- 

 ent J. D. Eisele, president of Henry A. 

 Dreer, Inc., Biverton, N. J.; T. E. Steele, 

 of the Pomona Nurseries, Palmjrra, N. 

 J.; John J. Davis and C. H. Hadley, 

 agents of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture at Biverton, N. J.; P. M. Koster, 

 of the Koster Co., Bridgeton, N. J.; 

 W. A. Manda, South Orange, N. J.; E. 

 S. Hunter, Delanco, N. J.; T. Sherman 

 Borden; H. G. Taylor, secretary of the 

 New Jersey State Horticultural Society; 

 Harry B. Weiss, of the New Jersey De- 

 partment of Agriculture; J. O. Sanders, 

 director of plant industry of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and Thomas H. Meehan, of Dress- 

 ier, Pa. 



The importance of this hearing was 

 indicated in the article in the issue of 

 The Beview for January 15, entitled, 

 "Now Comes the Tug of War." The 

 board proposed to extend the quaran- 

 tine, at present only on green com, to 

 cover practically all growing crops and 

 to enlarge the area affected to include 

 the township of Biverton, N. J. 



Contest Need of Bestriction. 



The hearing brought out assertions 

 that the beetle so far has not done a 

 dollar 's worth of economic damage, that 

 regulations can be prescribed that will 

 permit shipment after inspection and 

 certification and that the board does 

 not necessarily have to prohibit ship- 

 ments from the area infested. 



At the conclusion of the hearing, Dr. 

 Marlatt, chairman of the board, de- 

 clared, "There is only one method that 

 is really effective and that is prohibi- 

 tion of movement in case an insect like 

 this, which has it own means of loco- 

 motion, becomes thoroughly seated." 

 He said that the board could determine 

 where prohibition was necessary. "But 

 we want restriction to the utmost," he 

 added. 



Discussion among the department ex- 

 perts disclosed the fact that the pro- 

 posed extension would be issued and 

 made effective at as early a date as prac- 

 ticable, within a month or six weeks if 

 possible. Dr. Marlatt explained the 

 purpose of the hearing, stating that it 

 was intended to obtain information with 

 respect to the proposed extension of the 

 federal quarantine which was issued last 

 September. The purpose, he said, in 



making the proposed quarantine so 

 broad was to bring the whole field for- 

 ward for discussion. 



"It does not mean," he said, "that 

 necessarily all of these things will be 

 included in the quarantine when is- 

 sued." He stated that discussion should 

 center around machinery that can be 

 made efFective with the least possible 

 inconvenience to producers. 



State vs. Federal Quarantine. 



Harry B. Weiss, representing the New 

 Jersey Department of Agriculture, sub- 

 mitted to the board a copy of the New 

 Jersey state quarantine issued January 

 9, embracing nursery stock and green- 

 house products, including all trees, 

 shrubs, cut flowers, bulbs, roots and all 

 other plants classed as nursery, green- 

 house and herbaceous stock. He then 

 requested that the federal board elimi- 

 nate these things from its proposed ex- 

 tension order, in view of the fact that 

 they were covered in the state. He 

 declared, however, that if this course 

 was not followed, the state would co- 

 operate in every way with the board in 

 carrying out any regulations issued by 

 it for the control or eradication of the 

 beetle. 



Dr. Marlatt declared that this was the 

 first time that such a request had been 

 made and he said that he doubted the 

 advisability of such a course. "We 

 have never split a quarantine," he said. 



Dr. Marlatt stated that there was a 

 feeling that a federal quarantine exer- 

 cises more of a stigma than a state 

 quarantine, but he could not see the 

 basis of such a feeling. "There is a 

 feeling on the part of nurserymen that 

 a federal quarantine will be more drastic 

 than a state quarantine. The fact that 

 the quarantine is on account of the 

 beetle will be known in either case. I 

 do not see any reason for splitting a 

 quarantine." 



Dr. A. L. Quaintance, of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, said in part: "I 

 propose that the matter be adjusted 

 along this line, that the federal au- 

 thorities be responsible for the inter- 

 state movement of all products out of 

 the territory in question, that the state 

 be responsible for any state movement 

 out of the infested territory, that these 

 two forces work in closer cooperation 

 and under the general direction of the 

 federal board man located at Biverton, 

 that there shall be such division of work 

 and responsibility as to take full ad- 

 vantage of the experience of both 

 forces, all to be dovetailed into one 

 piece of machinery." 



Lenient Last Year. 



John J. Davis, agent of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, located at Biver- 

 ton, stated: "The quarantine last year 

 covered only sweet corn. The quaran- 



tined area included townships bounded 

 by township lines. Certain areas were 

 not infested. Outside of the infested 

 areas we gave certificates to ship com. 

 The farms were first inspected for beetle 

 infestation. If the beetles were not 

 present, the farms were allowed certifi- 

 cates for certain periods or until in- 

 fested shipments of com were not de- 

 stroyed. Only the ears on which were 

 found beetles were discarded. The 

 quarantine for this year is to include 

 larger territory and greater variety of 

 crops, because we find that any of these 

 crops listed in the quarantine notice 

 are capable of carrying the beetles, es- 

 pecially if they are carried in baskets. 



"We have had no experience with 

 the nursery end of the quarantine. In 

 handling greenhouse products within the 

 infested area they should be shipped 

 out only between November 1 and June 

 15, when the beetles are not present and 

 then only when the soil has been re- 

 moved from the roots or plants or by 

 some other means are found to be free 

 from living Japanese beetle grubs. ' ' 



He said that nursery stock without 

 roots could be eliminated from quaran- 

 tine after inspection and he declared 

 that he thought the possibility of beetles 

 getting into greenhouses was exceed- 

 ingly remote. He said that where soil 

 could be removed prohibition of ship- 

 ment should be eliminated. With the 

 exception of hay, he said, everything 

 in the list contained in the quarantine 

 notice could be cleaned and moved. 



Elsele Disbelieves Beetle's Damage. 



J. D. Eisele, president of Henry A. 

 Dreer, Inc., half humorously said that 

 he did not like the word quarantine. 

 "It reminds you," he said, "of all 

 kinds of diseases, like smallpox, yellow 

 fever, etc." 



"We want to cooperate with the de- 

 partment in any safe and sane inspec- 

 tion," he declared. "The possibility 

 of infestation is extremely slight, as 

 both Mr. Davis and Mr. Weiss have ex- 

 plained. The possibility is bringing 

 the grub in with the soil. The bulk of 

 our soil comes from the other side of 

 the river, from Pennsylvania." 



Mr. Eisele said that his firm put soil 

 through a grinder, which had proved 

 satisfactory to all inspecting officers. 

 "We have a grinder that will make it 

 impossible for the grab to exist," he 

 continued. "We want as little incon- 

 venience as possible. At the same time 

 and as a horticulturist with nearly fifty 

 years' experience, I want to put on 

 record my own belief that up to the 

 present time this beetle has not done 

 one dollar's worth of economical dam- 

 age. ' ' He said that on recommendation 

 of those concerned he would make ar- 

 rangements to spray or dust the Dreer 



