September 28, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



457 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New Yoric. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE, 



Editorial Articles; — Legislations against Injurious Insects and Plant 



Diseases 457 



Proper Park Facilities 458 



Overland in the Cayuga Country. — III Professor L. H. Bailey. 458 



The Old Southern Country-seat O. W. BlacknalL 459 



"Shongum," — I M. H. P. 459 



New OR Little-known Plants : — A New Hybrid Rose. {With figure.) 460 



Cypripedium Daisyee. (With figure.) 460 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Goldrin^. 461 



Cultural Department: — Hardy Lilies E. O, Orpet. 462 



Autumn-blooming Perennial Plants J. N. Gerard, 464 



Cool-house Ferns XV. H. Taplin. 464 



Tomato Diseases Professor Byron D. Hatsted. 465 



Hardy Cyclamens Edward IVhiiiall. 465 



Correspondence: — Early Autumn near Cape Cod. .J/rj. Schuyler Va?i Rensselaer. 465 



Scab-proof Apples % Professor E. S. Gopf. 467 



Recent Publications 467 



Notes 467 



Illustrations : — A New Hybrid Rose, Fig. 78 461 



Cypripedium Daisyse, Fig. 79 463 



Legislations against Injurious Insects and Plant 

 Diseases. 



THE amount of money which is lost every year in this 

 country by the ravages of insects and of fungus 

 plagues is so enormous that any attempt to state the figures 

 in hundreds of millions of dollars would sound like an ex- 

 aggeration. We are constantly reminded, however, of 

 these losses, and within a week past two of the bulle- 

 tins received from state experiment stations contain state- 

 ments which will help us in forming some estimate of their 

 extent The September bulletin from Michigan asserts that 

 the loss in that state this year to the Oat crop alone by the 

 single disease known as smut exceeds $1,000,000. Profes- 

 sor J. B. Smith, the Entomologist of the New Jersey Experi- 

 ment Station, in the report for the year, just received, as- 

 serts that insects exact a tax of fully ten per cent on the 

 farm products of that state, and this tax is all taken directly 

 from profits. Dr. Shimer, whose estimate has been ap- 

 proved by the highest authorities, has stated that in one 

 year the corn and grain crop of the single state of Illinois 

 suffered to the extent of $73,000,000 from the chinch-bug, 

 and Professor Comstock estimated that the ravages of the 

 cotton-worm in years when it was generally prevalent 

 caused the loss of $30,000,000. If the agricultural products 

 of the United States approach $4,000,000,000 annually, and 

 one-tenth of this is destroyed by insects, the addition of 

 the loss caused by fungus diseases would easily swell the 

 figures to a total destruction of five hundred millions per 

 annum. Whether half a billion dollars, or, sa)'-, a million 

 and a half of money every day, is over the truth or under 

 it as an estimate of this loss, the fact remains that the 

 amount of the destruction is quite beyond the grasp of the 

 ordinary imagination. 



The increased knowledge of the history and habits of 



-destructive insects and of fungi which cause plant diseases 



is the most striking feature in the progress which has been 



made in agriculture and horticulture during the last twenty 

 years. We can all remember when these losses were en- 

 dured as a matter of course, and with scarcely an effort to 

 avert them, while now there is an organized corps of skilled 

 investigators in every state who are studying and experi- 

 menting to discover the best practical means of defeating 

 these enemies, and some knowledge of the latest and most 

 approved fungicides and insecticides, and some familiarity 

 with the best machinery for applying them, is a necessary 

 equipment for the ordinary farmer and gardener. But these 

 enemies come in such countless multitudes, and their 

 operations spread over so large a territory, that no effective 

 stand against them can be made without concert of action. 

 It is useless for one man to rid his Plum-trees of the black 

 knot or his Apple-orchards of the tent-caterpillar if his 

 neighbor allows both the insect and the fungus to breed on 

 trees in an adjacent lot It seems reasonable, therefore, 

 that some legal means should be devised of compelling 

 land-holders to keep their premises free from certain kinds 

 of insect and fungus pests. 



The state of Michigan was visited with some severe 

 criticism a few years ago for enacting a law to suppress the 

 peach yellows, and an attempt was made to overthrow a 

 similar law in New York state by persons who contended 

 that the yellows was not a specific disease which was com- 

 municable. Time, however, has vindicated the wisdom of 

 this law, and now not only has Michigan a new and more 

 effective law, but Delaware, New York and California have 

 passed enactments which look in the same direction. In 

 New Jersey the experiment station authorities have the 

 power to destroy crops which are infested with new and 

 dangerous fungi — a law which was passed as a result of the 

 investigation of the cranberry-gall fungus two years ago. 

 In California and Washington there is an inspector of fruit 

 pests, who has power to quarantine fruit packages, trees, 

 plants, cuttings and cions which are believed to be infested 

 with insects or disease germs liable to spread contagion, 

 and this quarantine is good not only against foreign coun- 

 tries, but against the other states of the Union. This is the 

 first organized effort to exclude contagious plant diseases 

 from a given territory, and if it is honestly executed it will 

 be watched with great interest It is worth noting here 

 that many nurserymen in the east argue that the prime 

 purpose of this law is to prevent competition in the nur- 

 sery business. Beyond these laws there have been sporadic 

 efforts to exterminate some particular pest, like the attack 

 in Massachusetts upon the Gypsy-moth, or the efforts of 

 the General Government to afford some protection against 

 the grasshoppers in the west But, after all, it is plain that, 

 as compared with the magnitude of the evils, the efforts 

 made by state governments for the protection of the prop- 

 erty of their citizens have been slight and desultory. 



In a few of the states, laws to prevent the spread of noxious 

 weeds are in force, and, of course, laws against insects are 

 based on the same principle. And why should not the 

 protection of plant life be as justifiable a subject for legisla- 

 tion as the protection of animal life.? The state will spend 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars to stamp out pleuro-pneu- ■ 

 monia from its herds, and yet the pecuniary loss and the 

 discomfort to society from this disease are no greater than 

 what happens from the destruction of the vineyards by the 

 phylloxera or black rot To be effective, however, legisla- 

 tion must be based on the best available information, and 

 it should be general. It is not to be assumed that the 

 members of our state legislatures are sufficiently well ac- 

 quainted with the habits of insects or the life-history of 

 fungi to devise the best means of attacking them. But 

 there are in almost every state persons who are skilled in 

 economic entomology and in mycology, and their knowl- 

 edge and experience are available. There is an associa- 

 tion of economic entomologists who represent every part 

 of the United States. There is an association of officers of 

 the experiment stations and the agricultural colleges, 

 whose business it is to look after the interests of agricul- 

 ture and of horticulture. This certainly is a subject to be 



