90 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
storage is often very great. It is stated that from this 
hamlet 90,000,000 fern fronds were picked in one year. 
One’s first thought, after reading this article, is that 
the spinulose shield fern, presumably Dryopteris inter- 
media (Muhl.) Gray, is doomed in the localities where 
it is so prodigiously picked. However, from what one 
can glean from the facts stated, the industry continues 
year after year with no apparent or appreciable ex- 
haustion of the fern. This is without doubt due to the 
fact that the fronds are picked or broken off so that 
the rootstocks are uninjured, although one might sus- 
pect that yearly picking of the fronds would eventually 
weaken the vitality of the plants to a marked degree. 
Might not this be true with the half-evergreen spinulose 
shield fern? 
Mr. W. N. Clute has copied? from the American 
Botanist, December, 1903, an article, “Destroying the 
Ferns.” It relates largely to an attempt to pass a 
measure in the Massachusetts Legislature early in 1903, 
requiring that each commercial fern gatherer in the 
Berkshires and that State be required to have a license 
for fern picking, and to make other laws restricting the 
collecting. It is there stated, “not more than $50,000 
worth of ferns are harvested in Berkshire every year,” 
and “it is estimated that more than 100,000,000 ferns 
are gathered each year and put in cold storage at Spring- 
field to be sent broadcast over the country.” Un- 
doubtedly this bill was killed in the Legislature, as a 
stiff fight was to be waged to defeat it. Prof. Clute 
ends the article by saying: “It is a mistake to think 
that removing the fronds, even in autumn, does no 
harm to the plants. Gathering the fronds late in the 
year injures the plants less than at other seasons, but 
it may be safely assumed that so long as the fronds are 
* Fern Bulletin 12: 55-57. April, 1904. : 
