t ■ ';i'.^>'- 1?: 



32 



The Florists^ Review 



May 18, 1922 



tcr from the utaiidpoint of the bourd. 

 Orlando Harrison, cliairnian of the lejj- 

 ishitive coniinittee of the AiiuTican As- 

 sociation of Nurserymen, however, an- 

 nouneed that his association tliorou}i;hly 

 approved (juarantine 157, oj)i)()sed any 

 steps that might he taken to tend to 

 lessen its effectiveness and, in fact, is 

 in favor of additional restrictions bein}{ 

 placed on foreign products. He urged, 

 however, that certain additions be made 

 to the permitted list to allow free 

 entry of certain jtrodiicts desired by the 

 nurserymen. 



Prof. H. Harold Hume, of (Jlon St. 

 Mary, Fla., was practically the only 

 rosarian to speak in favor of an exten- 

 sion of regulation 3. He represented 

 the rose stock growers of Florida and 

 declared that the quarantine had done 

 more to help them than anything else, 

 pointing out that before the enactment 

 of the original legislation we were de- 

 ])endent chiefly upon foreign sources of 

 supply, while the quarantine made it 

 necessary for the growers to propagate 

 a great many varieties in which they 

 had not before been interested. Prof. 

 Hume went so far as to state that the 

 board would be justified in finally pro- 

 hibiting the importation even of Man- 

 etti rose stocks and that the growers 

 he represented were in favor of such 

 action being taken. 



That period of the afternoon given 

 over to the remarks of state officials 

 was a period of much pleasure to the 

 ))oard, since the state agricultural or- 

 ganizations are solidly behind quaran- 

 tine 37 and are willing that the board 

 take any steps necessary to strengthen 

 it. Ten states were represented at the 

 conference and in every instance the 

 testimony of the officials was in favor 

 of the board. They acknowledged, how- 

 ever, that their approbation of the quar- 

 antine was based on the results effected 

 in fighting citrus canker and diseases of 

 cotton, wheat, corn and other staple 

 crops. 



Seedsman's Bitter Attack. 



The most bitter attack upon the or- 

 ders of the board was delivered by J. C. 

 Vaughan, of Chicago, who declared that 

 he had been advised by Prof. Irish, of 

 the Missouri Botanical Gardens, that 

 there has not been a single new insect 

 encmv discovered anywhere in the 

 world in the last five years. Mr. 

 Vaughan also declared that the board's 

 impression that its orders are meeting, 

 if not with the approval of the general 

 public, at least not with opposition, is 

 unfounded, as he and practically every 

 other retail dealer in the country is 

 daily asked why it is suddenly impossi- 

 ble to secure bulbs and plants which 

 formerly were great favorites and easily 

 procured. The board has cut off the 

 importation of many popular plants, en- 

 tirely harmless in character, and has as 

 well" discriminated in the amounts and 

 varieties that may be imported by va- 

 rious persons, he charged. 



A number of other florists and nurs- 

 erymen, including E. G. Hill, Richmond, 

 Ind.; W. A. Sperling, of the Stumpp & 

 Walter Co., New York; Ralph H. Tay- 

 lor, of California; F. L. Atkins, Ruther- 

 ford, N. J., and R. E. Elliott, of the 

 Elliott Nursery Co., Pittsburgh, also 

 spoke. 



Mr. Hill declared that he and other 

 growers in his vicinity had attempted 

 to grow many stocks other than Manetti, 

 but had never had any success, due to 

 the fact that thev could not be forced 



in winter, lie expressed the hope that 

 at some time in the future it would be 

 l)ossible to grow not only Manetti, but 

 other varii'ties as well, in this country. 

 .Vt the ]>resent time, he said, Manetti is 

 the only variety that meets the require- 

 ments of the growers. 



Great Britain's View. 



The sentiments of Great Britain in 

 regard to the quarantine were not fa- 

 vorable to American methods of han- 

 <lling the situation, according t^ W. G. 

 Lobjoit, com])troller of horticulture of 

 Great Britain. He pointed out that 

 while the I'nited States is making a 

 great deal of fuss over insects and dis- 

 eases imported from abroad, it must not 

 forget that fully as many are being ex- 

 ported to England in shipments of ap- 

 ples, pears, peas, onions and other com- 

 modities, but that England was placing 

 no obstacle in tlu' way of a free trade 

 in such things. Ho divided the various 

 classes of parasites which had been in- 

 tercepted by the hoard into three 

 classes, only one of which was composed 

 of insects found in Kngland but not in 

 this country. The second group was 

 composed of what he termed ' ' eosmo- 

 ])olitans," found equally in both coun- 

 tries. The third group consisted of 

 l)arasites conveyed l)y shijjping which 

 iiad no connection with the movement 

 of live plants. 



He outlined the work which is being 

 done by local and government author- 

 ities in England in perfecting a sys- 

 tem of inspection and certification, and 

 declared that the system which is being 

 worked out will be such as adequately to 

 protect the United States from any 

 possibility of infestation. 



"The logical carrying out of your 

 doctrine," he told the board, "would 

 mean that every box of pears and every 

 barrel of a])ples imjiorted into England 

 from the United States would have to 

 be inspected and bear a certificate show- 

 ing their freedom from pests." 



England, he added, is not satisfied 

 that sufficient restrictions are being 

 placed around importations from Amer- 

 ica. The continuance of trade between 

 the two countries is a matter of benefit 

 to both countries, and he suggested the 

 broad view that it is better to deal with 

 these problems in a reasonable manner 

 rather than put barriers on the trade. 



Holland's Close Supervision. 



T)r. E. Van Slagteren, state phyto- 

 jiathologist for the bulb district of Hol- 

 land, asserted that the 'Dutch bulbs 

 could be guaranteed to be free from 

 all diseases and insects, and he asked 

 that they be permitted free entry into 

 the United States. He explained the 

 sui>ervision which is carried on in his 

 country, and he showed that under their 

 methods it would be almost impossible 

 for a dangerous bulb to come into this 

 country. 



At least a thousand plant exporters 

 in Flanders have been driven out of 

 business and practically ruined by the 

 effects of the quarantine following the 

 war, declared Charles Pinaert, president 

 of the Belgian horticultural chamber. 

 "The result of quarantine 37 is that 

 we are practically cut off from horticul- 

 tural intercourse with the United 

 States," he said. "It was your florists 

 and buyers who stimulated us to in- 

 crease our business. We do not agree 

 that you run any risk in importing any 

 of our plants, and we cannot admit that 



our greenhouse soil can be the means 

 of conveying j)ests or diseases." 



The speaker charged that the orders 

 of the federal horticultural board are 

 drafted as much with a view to tariff 

 protection for the American grower as 

 to keep out dangerous pests and plant 

 diseases. "If we took a leaf out of your 

 book and imposed similar drastic regu- 

 lations, what would be the result?" he 

 •asked. "Belgium imports far more 

 from the United States than it exports 

 to this country." 



Retaliation? 



Dr. Van Poeteren, of Holland, de- 

 clared that if the American restrictions 

 were adopted by every other country in 

 the world, all trade would be practically 

 eliminated. He requested that the im- 

 portation of horticultural and agricul- 

 tural products from countries which 

 maintain a service acknowledged by the 

 importing country as adequate be per- 

 mitted by the board. He also held out 

 the possibility of retaliation by Euro- 

 pean countries should this not be done. 



Louis Sander, on behalf of the Bel- 

 gian government, urged the board to 

 give at this time the reply promised a 

 year ago to an appeal that importations 

 of begonias be permitted. When the 

 case was submitted to the board, he 

 said, a prompt reply was promised, but 

 nothing at all has ever been received. 



Charles H. Totty, Madison, N. J., 

 urged the board to i)ermit the free entry 

 of Manetti stocks. E. G. Hill suggested 

 that geraniums, heliotropes, chrysan- 

 themums and other soft-wooded plants 

 be allowed to come to Washington in 

 their original soil and the soil washed 

 off there, and the plants shipped out in 

 fresh moss, thus obviating much of the 

 loss which must otherwise occur. 



On behalf of the amateurs, A. C. Bur- 

 rage, of Boston, Mass., asked the re- 

 moval of the discrimination? now exist- 

 ing whereby one importer is apparently' 

 given preference over others. 



Off High Perch. 



Dr. Marlatt acknowledged that some 

 justification existed for some of the 

 charges that had been made, and an- 

 nounced that the board was quite will- 

 ing to hold conferences with those in- 

 terested regarding the suggestions that 

 soft-wooded plants be shipped into 

 Washington in their own soil and trans- 

 ported to the importer in moss, as sug- 

 gested by Mr. Hill ; that the discrim- 

 inations in the regulations complained 

 of by Mr. Burrage were worthy of con- 

 sideration, and that the board is desir- 

 ous of discussing with bulb growers and 

 importers the question of providing a 

 new list of prohibited and new bulbs. 

 Committees representing the various 

 ^Vanches of the industry were appointed 

 '1(1 take up with the board such questions 

 a^ they were interested in. These con- 

 ferences will be held over a period of 

 time, in an effort to arrive at a clearer 

 understanding of what can be done and 

 to bring about a better feeling of co- 

 operation between the board and those 

 it must deal with. 



Wind-Up of Conference. 



Only a short time was required to 

 wind up the conference May 16, the 

 greater part of the meeting being de- 

 voted to a consideration of the recom- 

 mendations made by the various 

 branches of the industry. 



The most interesting feature of the 

 day was the showing by W. J. .Tones, 



