May 17, 1917. 



The Florists^ Review 



23 



OUR ALIBI IS ESTABLISHED 



In a recent Issue The Review stated that the trade is justified in opposing tlie 

 absolute quarantine now being advocated, for tlie reason that dangerous insects or dis- 

 eases Imve come to tliis country otlierwise tliau with tlie plants, bulbs and seeds cus- 

 tomarily imported by the trade. In this letter Entomologist Fracker proves the trutli 

 of that statement, although such was not his purpose. 



Y attention has been at- 

 tracted to an editorial in a 

 recent issue of The Review 

 entitled ' ' We Have an Al- 

 ibi. " In this editorial 

 the statement is made: 

 ' ' None of the devastating 

 diseases, not one of the injurious in- 

 sects, came to this country on stock 

 imported by florists, nurserymen or 

 seedsmen. We have a perfect alibi." 

 As this statement is incorrect in fact 

 and still more so in implication, I hope 

 that you will consider the following 

 statements worthy of publication in 

 your valued periodical. 



The plant material handled by flo- 

 rists and nurserymen may be roughly 

 grouped into evergreen and deciduous 

 shade trees, citrus and rosaceous fruits 

 and greenhouse plants. For each of 

 these five groups one insect or one dis- 

 ease, or both, stands out as being pre- 

 eminently destructive. 



Dangers to Shade Trees, 



The greatest danger being caused at 

 the present time in the United States 

 to deciduous shade trees by any fun- 

 gous disease is that caused by the chest- 

 nut blight, which authorities say will 

 in time completely wipe out the chest- 

 nuts of the eastern United States. This 

 blight was introduced by a nursery 

 company, with headquarters at Chicago, 

 on a dwarf chestnut tree from Asia. 

 From its original location it spread 

 both by natural means and 

 by the assistance of nur- 

 serymen. The most seri- 

 ous insect pests of, this 

 class of material dare the 

 gypsy and brown-tail 

 moths, which, while they 

 were not brought in for the 

 first time by nurserymen, 

 have been introduced re- 

 peatedly by them in recent 

 years and have become es- 

 tablished in various locali- 

 ties west of the Hudson 

 river, owing to such intro- 

 duction. It has only been 

 by the most radical meth- 

 ods of destruction and con- 

 trol that these western out- 

 breaks have been checked. 

 It was our good fortune 

 that information in regard 

 to the remarkably serious 

 nature of these moths be- 

 came so widespread before 

 they were introduced by 

 the importation of plants 

 that every effort was made 

 to control the outbreaks 

 elsewhere. 



A disease which is al- 

 ready the most serious one 

 affecting any evergreen 

 tree in New Englj^nd, and 

 which, if uncontrolled, is 

 likely to make the grow- 

 ing of white pine abso- 



lutely impossible in the northern and 

 eastern United States, is the white pine 

 blister. This is almost, if not quite, 

 completely distributed throughout the 

 New England states, Massachusetts 

 being most severely attacked. It is 

 a disease for the control of which the 

 last Congress appropriated $300,000 and 

 bills totaling more than this sum are 

 now pending before state legislatures. 

 These amounts indicate how important 

 this Asiatic fungus is considered by 

 those who have seen its work. 



Origin of White Pine Blister. 



From Asia the white pine blister was 

 brought to Germany by two German 

 nurseries and it has been shipped by 

 them to a large number of different 

 nurseries in this country, including sev- 

 eral on whose grounds it has been es- 

 tablished in New York, others in Penn- 

 sylvania and others in Connecticut. It 

 was introduced into Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota by one shipment to a Wis- 

 consin man through a large Illinois 

 firm that imported directly from Ger- 

 many, and by another shipment to a 

 Minnesota nurseryman, the origin of 

 which has not yet been determined. 



No imported insect stands out as be- 

 ing strikingly injurious to evergreen 

 trees. The one which promises to be 

 the most serious is the pine shoot moth, 

 Evetria buoliana, which has become es- 

 tablished in New Jersey and Long Isl- 

 and through importations from Europe 



THE TRADE'S ATTITUDE 



[As stated by a committee of the S. A. F.] 



During the last few years a small group of entomologists 

 have been agitating for a quarantine on importations. A 

 resolution, broad in character, requesting the Federal Hor- 

 ticultural Board to take action, failed of their purpose and 

 the American Forestry Association was appealed to. This 

 body has gone on record as favoring "the principle of abso- 

 lute quarantine on plants, trees and nursery stock." 



The legislative committee of the S. A. F, has prepared a 

 brief in which it is declared that: 



Such legislation, even if it were modified, is quite unnecessary, and 

 would injuriously affect the interests of the great majority of S, A. F. 

 members. It would not only stop the importation of such raw materials as 

 valley pips, Japanese lily bulbs, Manetti stock, Dutch bulbs, etc., but aza- 

 leas, bay trees and every kind of nursery stock. It would stop the impor- 

 tations of palms, also the seeds with which to grow them; of dracaenas, 

 also the canes necessary to produce the plants ourselves. It would stop 

 the importation of new varieties of roses, chrysanthemums, begonias, ferns, 

 etc. It would put a Chinese wall around these United States in a horti- 

 cultural sense, followed no doubt later by a similar wall around each state. 



Comparatively few of our state entomologists or inspectors favor this 

 panicky legislation. They realize that new or dangerous insect pests or 

 plant diseases can come only from remote parts of the world, from which 

 no commercial importations come. They realize that florists and nursery- 

 men import almost exclusively from Europe and civilized countries which 

 have a most efiB.cient inspection service. That importations are now 

 made only under the closest restrictions, that each shipment is in- 

 spected before shipment and again at final destination, that a permit must 

 be secured to make each importation and that to each package must be 

 attached a tag showing all inspection details to the Federal Horticultural 

 Board, which has almost arbitrary control over plant importations, includ- 

 ing the power of quarantine. Besides, if any stray bugs should come they 

 are known ones and the remedy for them known also. 



to New Jersey and New York nurseries. 



On citrus trees the citrus canker, 

 which has resulted in the complete de- 

 struction of many thousands of dollars' 

 worth of citrus^ orchards in the south- 

 ern states, stands out above all others. 

 While its origin is not definitely known, 

 the nurserymen by no means "have an 

 alibi ' ' in regard to it. No suggestion 

 has been made by nurserymen or any 

 others that it could have been intro- 

 duced in any otiier way. We do know 

 that it was introduced into Florida on 

 nursery stock from Texas and probably 

 from Japan, and that it spread by means 

 of shipments of nursery stock. 



Whatever its method of introduction 

 into this country was, it must have 

 come in on growing citrus stock im- 

 ported either by a nurseryman or some- 

 one else acting in the capacity of a 

 nurseryman at the time. 



Scale on Citrus Trees. 



The two serious insect pests of citrus 

 in California, according to California 

 Experiment Station Bulletins 222 and 

 223, are the black scale and the red or 

 orange scale. Of these the first is a 

 European species, the date and method 

 of introduction into this country being 

 unknown. 



Th red scale, Chrysomplialus aurantii 

 Mask., seems to be a Chinese species 

 which was introduced probably not 

 more than half a century ago into Aus- 

 tralia and New Zealand. 

 It arrived in this country 

 in one of the "hothouses" 

 of San Francisco, and an 

 infested tree was sold by 

 a florist to a certain L. J. 

 Rose, thus being intro- 

 duced into San Gabriel, 

 Cal. At the same time six 

 infested lemon trees were 

 hrouglit from Australia by 

 Don ^lateo Keller, although 

 it does not appear whether 

 this second gentleman 

 named was a nurseryman 

 or not. At any rate, the 

 florist's connection with 

 the case does not seem to 

 be doubtful. 



The only seriously de- 

 structive, widespread, in- 

 troduced insect attacking 

 rosaceous fruits whose 

 origin is known is the San 

 Jose scale. This is the only 

 dangerous insect concerning 

 whose introduction nursery- 

 men actually do have an 

 "alibi," so far as I am 

 aware. In this case the 

 only factor for which the 

 nurserymen seem to be re- 

 sponsible consists in the 

 efficient distribution of the 

 pest to all parts of the 

 United States. 



It is particularly diffi- 



