September 27, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



401 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office ; Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducled by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE l-OST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles: — Legislation Against Plant Diseases and Injurious Insects. 401 



The Destruction of our Forests 402 



American Parks : Lincoln Park, Chicag'. Mrs. % H. Robbins. 402 



Cave Plants Saaie F. Price, 403 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan.— XXII C. S. S. 403 



New or Little-known Plants: — Inula grandiflora. (With figure.) 404 



Cultural Department: — Apples in Kansas F. Wellhouse. 404 



The Cultivation of Water-lilies Wtn. Trickcr. 406 



Garden Notes J. N. Gerard. 407 



Mushrooms as a Side Crop Samuel Henshaw. 407 



Mr. Eckford's Sweet Peas W. Watson. 40S 



Correspondence : — American Coniferous Forests H. J. Eiwes. 408 



Notes from California Carl Piirdy. 408 



A Tropical Plant-house T. D. H. 408 



Thb Columbian Exposition: — The Fruit Displays, Brevities, 



Professor L. H. Bailey. 409 



Notes 409 



iLLireTRATiON : — Inula grandiflora. Fig. 61 406 



Legislation Against Plant Diseases and Injurious 

 Insects. 



HOW far it is possible to arrest or control the spread of 

 insects and of fungi injurious to vegetation is a sub- 

 ject with which every intelligent farmer and fruit-grower is 

 familiar. It is discouraging for a man who takes energetic 

 efforts to eradicate from his trees the black-knot or to pro- 

 tect his vines from mildew and his orchard from the cod- 

 dling-moth, when his neighbor's vineyard is a breeding 

 ground for disease germs, and his neighbor's orchard is a nest 

 of insect pests. A successful effort to repel these enemies can 

 only be made when an entire community addresses itself 

 intelligently to concerted work. This may be helped in 

 municipalities by ordinances. The local government of 

 towns or counties in urgent cases can help to organize ma- 

 chinery and furnish immediate funds. But just as one 

 man is powerless in this struggle unless his neighbor co- 

 operates, so one municipality is powerless unless adjacent 

 ones assist. Going one step farther, there is no doubt of 

 the power of the state to legislate for the welfare of its own 

 citizens, and there are laws in New Jersey which aim to 

 exterminate the Cranberry-scald and other diseases, laws 

 in Michigan and other states against the Peach-yellows, 

 laws in New York against the black-knot of the Plum and 

 Cherry, and laws in almost every state against the careless 

 dissemination of seeds of noxious weeds like the Canada 

 Thistle. But a law in New York has no effect in Pennsyl- 

 vania, and the citizens of New York on the borders of other 

 states, even if their own laws are enforced, are powerless 

 to prevent invasion from hot-beds of disease and breeding- 

 grounds of insects in another state. Commerce knows no 

 state-lines, and so long as there is freedom of intercourse 

 there is no help against the admission of contagions or of 

 insect pests. If these things are to be held in check by 

 law, therefore, state regulation alone is of no avail, and we 

 must look for aid to some authority with a more compre- 

 hensive jurisdiction. 



What can Federal legislation accomplish .' The most 

 complete reply we have seen to this question was made in 

 a paper read before the Nurserymen's session of the recent 

 Horticultural Congress in Chicago, by the Hon. Edwin 

 Willits, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. There is little 

 to be added to what Mr. Willits said, and what follows is 

 essentially an epitome of his paper. The Constitution 

 contains only two clauses under which the power for re- 

 medial legislation in this direction can be claimed. In 

 the eighth section of the first article Congress is author- 

 ized " to provide for the common defense and general wel- 

 fare of the United States." This clause has received wide 

 interpretation as the party in power chanced to feel in- 

 clined, and the question, What is the general welfare ? has 

 been answered in some remarkable ways. Indeed, so 

 vague an inquiry might well puzzle law-makers. When the 

 Colorado beetle first began to travel eastward, was the gen- 

 eral welfare threatened, and had Congress a right to call 

 upon the people to contribute money for its abatement, as 

 they could be called upon to pay taxes in war for the com- 

 mon defense } Would it be right to compel orange-growers 

 in Florida, whose groves are free from the white scale, to 

 contribute money for the annihilation of this destructive 

 insect in California .' In such a case as this, how far can 

 Congress assume rights which had previously belonged to 

 states and individuals.' Suppose the best remedy for an 

 orchard infected with a fatal malady would be to dig it up, 

 root and branch ; what authority shall exercise this tre- 

 mendous power of destroying private property for the public 

 good.!" Who shall decide that the disease is contagious.' 

 Who shall condemn the property.? Who shall destroy it .' 

 There would be little trouble in such a case if the state au- 

 thorities co-operated with the Federal Government, as they 

 did in most cases when Congress conferred upon the De- 

 partment of Agriculture the power to eradicate pleuro-pneu- 

 monia. Agents of the department seized and slaughtered 

 animals on private premises when they were adjudged to 

 have the disease and paid the owner what they pleased. 

 But, in this way, the disease was stamped out. Congress 

 has authorized the General Government under this general 

 welfare clause to investigate the Peach-yellows, Pear-blight 

 and other forms of vegetable disease, as well as the habits 

 of various injurious insects, for the purpose of discovering 

 the best means of eradicating them. But it has never gone 

 beyond the lines of investigation and the publication of 

 the knowledge acquired for the general information. It 

 seems idle to believe that Congress can ever confer upon 

 a Federal agent the authority to enter upon a man's field 

 and destroy his trees or their products in order to abate 

 vegetable diseases or insect enemies. 



In the same section of the Constitution we have quoted. 

 Congress is empowered "to regulate commerce with 

 foreign nations and among the several states. ' Now, since 

 many diseases and pests are transmitted by commerce, 

 this clause offers some hope. If a disease or an insect 

 could be quarantined when it is first discovered, a large 

 percentage of the injuries from them would be avoided. 

 Congress has a right to say that no commodity shall be 

 transported from one state to another, if it carries a con- 

 tagious disease or a pestiferous insect. In pursuance of 

 this power. Congress can appoint agents to execute the 

 laws and inflict penalties for their violation. But this does 

 not prevent transporting a diseased product from one part 

 of a state to another part of the same state, and only a 

 small proportion of the commerce of a state cro.sses its 

 border. Freight, which crosses a state line, and is, there- 

 fore, under Federal jurisdiction, is mixed with freight to 

 be delivered before the line is reached, and the products 

 are hopelessly mingled. The Department of Agriculture 

 can now attach all the meats of a slaughter-house, whether 

 they were intended for local consumption or for foreign 

 commerce, and can hold it until every carcass is exam- 

 ined, without regard to its destination. But, after all, this 

 has little to do with the subject-matter. A Pear-orchard 

 afflicted with blight has a fixed home, and cannot be the 



