Dbcbmbbr 11, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



39 



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M F. H. B. TELLS ITS TALE x 



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MB. MABLATT'S STOBY. 



F. H. B. Beport on Quaxaatlne 37. 



To the trade there is the interest of 

 the other person's version of a tale in 

 the account of Quarantine No. 37 em- 

 bodied in the report of the Federal Hor- 

 ticultural Board for the year ending 

 June 30. Mr. Marlatt says: 



"The need of additional restrictions 

 or prohibitions with respect to the entry 

 of various classes of nursery stock and 

 other plant and seeds was referred to in 

 'the report of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board for last year, and also the hold- 

 ing of a public hearing at this depart- 

 ment May 28, 1918, at which the whole 

 subject was fully discussed with all the 

 interests concerned. 



"Following the hearing the subject 

 was further studied by the experts of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry of the depart- 

 ment, including a field examination of 

 the conditions throughout the country, 

 to determine the essential needs as to 

 future plant importations. The results 

 of these extended investigations were 

 einbodied in a tentative plant quaran- 

 tine order which was sent, August 29, 

 1918, to plant trade journals and re- 

 lated societies and to individuals who 

 had manifested an interest in this sub- 

 ject, either by attending the hearing or 

 by correspondence, with the request 

 that the proposed quarantine be given 

 careful consideration, with a view to a 

 conference later to discuss and deter- 

 mine the desirability of the proposed 

 restrictions. This conference was held 

 October 18, 1918, and the quarantine 

 was amended in minor details and pro- 

 mulgated by the department November 

 18, 1918, to take effect June 1, 1919. 



Criticisms and Answers. 



"This quarantine aroused wide criti- 

 cism and protest, much of this being 

 based, however, on misrepresentation 

 and particularly on the charge, which 

 was directly contrary to the facts, that 

 the quarantine would prevent the 

 United States from receiving the new 

 plant creations of Europe and other 

 foreign countries and that America 

 would therefore be forever deprived of 

 all such additions to its horticulture 

 and floriculture. These protests also 

 found large support on the part of im- 

 porters whose business was necessarily 

 restricted as a result of the quarantine. 

 On £he other hand, this quarantine re- 

 ceived substantial indorsement from 

 the great body of the producing nursery- 

 men of the country. 



"In answer to various criticisms and 

 to correct certain misrepresentations, 

 the board has issued several explana- 

 tory memoranda and statements, the 

 most important being a memorandum 

 dated February 1, 1919, giving a gen- 

 eral discussion of the quarantine and 

 of the conditions which led to its pro- 

 mulgation. A f 'ther explanatory 

 statement was issued by the Secretary 

 of Agriculture as a result of a confer- 

 ence March 1 with a committee repre- 

 senting the New York Florists' Club, 

 the Society of American Florists and 



the American Association of Nursery- 

 men. The statement of the secretary 

 is based on an impartial investigation 

 which he had made of the whole subject, 

 the report of which fully supported the 

 quarantine. These two documents have 

 been published in trade journals and 

 used liberally in correspondence with 

 respect to the quarantine. 



"The chairman of the board, on in- 

 vitation, has attended during the year 

 important annual meetings of nursery- 

 men and florists to discuss federal 

 plant quarantines and particularly 

 Quarantine No. 37. These meetings in- 

 cluded the Pacific Coast Association of 

 Nurserymen, at Riverside, Cal., in May; 

 the American Association of Nursery- 

 men, at Chicago in July, and the Society 

 of American Florists, at Detroit in 

 August. The discussion at these meet- 

 ings directly and through the reports 



ONE DAY EARLY 



Because the Christmas and New 

 Year's holidays fall on Thurs- 

 day, the day The Review usually 

 is mailed, the issues of 



— FOR — 



December 25 and January 1 



will go to press one day 

 earlier than usual . 



Correspondents and Advertisers 

 ^^— — please note ^-^—— 

 FORMS WILL CLOSE MONDAY 



Send your Copy in Early 



published in trade journals has brought 

 a perhaps better understanding of the 

 fundamental purposes underlying this 

 quarantine to the great body of persons 

 interested throughout the United 

 States. ' ' 



PESTS THAT COME IN. 



Or, Wliy the Lid Went Dowil 



A record has been kept since the or- 

 ganization of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board of all the interceptions of for- 

 eign plant pests and diseases on im- 

 ported nursery stock and other plants 

 and plant products. " As a result of the 

 requirement of the federal plant quar- 

 antine act as to foreign inspection and 

 certification," one reads in the board's 

 report for the year ending June 30, 

 "practically all of the foreign coun- 

 tries which are doing a commercial 

 trade of any importance in such prod- 

 ucts with the United States have in- 

 stalled adequate inspection service and 

 for the most part it is undoubted that 

 these countries are probably giving as 

 good inspection service as human skill 



and science can afford. The result of 

 this service has been a tremendous im- 

 provement in the sanitary condition of 

 the plants and plant products imported 

 into the United States. The infesta- 

 tion has been reduced to probably as 

 near a minimum as is humanly possible. 

 Nevertheless, the records referred ^ to 

 indicate that in spite of this inspection 

 and the foreign certifications accom- 

 panying importations, large numbers of 

 injurious insects and plant diseases are 

 still coming into the United States on 

 imported plants. Inasmuch as one of 

 the principal arguments of objectors to 

 foreign plant quarantines is that proper 

 inspection will eliminate these evils, it 

 is opportune at this time to call attention 

 to a summary of the conditions actually 

 shown by the inspection records of the 

 last seven years as to the plant imports 

 from the principal exporting countries. 

 With respect to insects, these records 

 indicate that there have been received 

 from Holland during this period 1,051 

 infested shipments, involving 148 kinds 

 of insect pests; from Belgium, 1,806 in- 

 fested shipments, involving sixty-four 

 kinds of insects; from France, 347 in- 

 fested shipments, involving eighty-nine 

 kinds of insects; from England, 154 in- 

 fested shipments, involving sixty-two 

 kinds of insects; from Japan, 291 in- 

 fested shipments, involving 108 kinds of 

 insects; from Germany, twelve infested 

 shipments, involving fifteen kinds of in- 

 sect pests. Many of these intercepted 

 insects are not known to be established 

 anywhere in this country and numbers 

 of them, if established, would undoubt- 

 edly become important farm, garden or 

 forest pests. 



What Inspection Did. 



"During the fiscal year 1919, possibly 

 as a result of the let-down due to war 

 conditions, there was an exceptional in- 

 crease of infestation of imported nurs- 

 ery stock with gipsy and brown-tail 

 moth. In the previous years under this 

 quarantine shipments thus infested had 

 been so reduced that for the entire 

 period of seven years only sixty-three 

 infested shipments had been discovered, 

 whereas prior to the passage of the 

 quarantine act such instances of infes- 

 tation ran up to several thousand an- 

 nually. Altogether 123 species of in- 

 sects were intercepted on various plants 

 and plant products during the fiscal 

 year just ended. In addition to gipsy- 

 moth egg masses and brown-tail moth 

 nests, the more important interceptions 

 were pink bollworm-infested cotton seed 

 from Brazil and China, European 

 Lackey moth from Holland, fruit fly 

 larvse from Cuba, Oriental moth from 

 Japan, gold-tail moth from France, seed 

 weevils infesting cherry seed from 

 France and a number of injurious scale 

 insects on miscellaneous plants. Soil 

 insects were collected on several oc- 

 casions, including the European mole 

 cricket, earwigs, Otiorchynchid larvae, 

 wireworms and white grubs from Hol- 

 land. 



"With respect to plant diseases in- 

 tercepted during the fiscal year 1919, 

 270 distinct disease organisms were 



