March io, 1897. 



Garden and Forest. 



9i 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article: — Quarantine Against Destructive Insects and Plant 



Diseases 91 



Second-growth White Pine in Pennsylvania Charles A. Keffer. 92 



The Arrangement of Flowers. — II Dorothy Root 93 



The Islands of Lake Champlain Professor F. A. ll'augh. 93 



Entomological: — The Strawberry-root Louse, Aphis forbesi. . G. I fur old Powell. 03 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. Watson. 94 



New or Little-known Plants: — Agave attenuata. (With figure. ) . J. N. Rose. 94 



Iris Hartwegii, Baker George Hansen. 95 



Cultural Department :— Notes on Hardy Plants F. H. Hors/ord. 96 



The Japanese Ampelopsis William Seott. 96 



Carnation Notes IV. N. Craig. 96 



Hardy Ferns Joseph Meehan. 97 



Correspondence : — Diseases of the Snovvberry L. F. Horner. 98 



The " Ramie " Fibre Plant G. IV Oliver. 98 



Hardy Cacti D. M. Andrews. 98 



Early March in West Virginia Danske Dandridge. 99 



Recent Publications 99 



Notes 100 



Illustration : — Agave attenuata, Fig. 12 95 



Quarantine Against Destructive Insects and Plant 

 Diseases. 



NOT long ago a correspondent in Denver wrote that a 

 considerable portion of the oranges which he found 

 in that market contained worms, which he described in a 

 general way as resembling those found in chestnuts. We 

 at once wrote him to send us specimens of the infested 

 fruit, if possible, but, although we have not received them, 

 there can be little doubt that this is the larva of the well- 

 known orange-worm, Trypeta ludens, which is known to 

 infest oranges in certain districts of Mexico. Professor 

 Cockerell, of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, in a paper just received, asserts that the oranges from 

 Morelos, Mexico, a district where this insect prevails, have 

 been shipped in considerable quantities into this country 

 during the present season. The shortage of the Florida 

 crop has kept oranges at a price that makes it profitable to 

 export them from that district, and this will explain their oc- 

 currence in this country. Few oranges from this part of 

 Mexico come to this port, for they are fit to market at about 

 the time when the Jamaica crop is in season, and with this 

 they cannot profitably compete, but it paid this year to 

 ship them to western cities, and undoubtedly this ac- 

 counts for their appearance in Denver. As the matter 

 stands, no one need be surprised to find that this insect has 

 secured a foothold during the present year in the orange 

 groves of Florida and California. Orange growers already 

 have enough to contend with, and there is no demand for 

 fresh troubles imported from Mexico or elsewhere, and no 

 one knows how serious a loss might follow the introduc- 

 tion of a new and active enemy. 



Professor Cockerell has already written for this journal 

 many articles concerning the scale insects which are 

 imported with fruit, fruit-trees and ornamental plants. In 

 the essay mentioned above he alludes to the well-known 

 fact that our most harmful insects are immigrants, and that 

 we do not know how a species will behave when it reaches 

 a strange land and finds itself under conditions different 

 from those at home. Without its natural checks it may 

 increase inordinately, as did the cottony scale in California. 

 Insects and fungi which infest one plant in one country 

 may find new food in another. We can place no trust in 



climatic barriers, for not only can many insects endure 

 great differences of temperature, but they may soon adjust 

 themselves to a new environment, and when Professor 

 Cockerell affirms that scale insects alone, which threaten 

 disaster to our orchards and vineyards, come from all 

 quarters of the globe, the statement is the result of calm 

 scientific judgment based on absolute knowledge, and not 

 the outcome of any childish panic. 



Now, there is nothing new in the situation at present, 

 and this threatened invasion of the orange-worm we only 

 use as a text to invite attention to the general fact that 

 while insects and fungi are destroying the crops in this 

 country to the value of a million and a half of dollars every 

 day, there are, perhaps, scores of other larva; and disease- 

 breeding fungi which would prove quite as destructive as 

 any that are now ravaging our crops if they once obtained 

 a foothold here. And what are we to do about it ? Of 

 course, the first thought is a quarantine to prohibit importa- 

 tion into this country of any diseased or insect-infested 

 fruit, tree, plant, cutting or seed ; and since it is a national 

 matter the obvious suggestion is that this should be a 

 United States law. Indeed, we have received with Pro- 

 fessor Cockerells essay the draft of a bill which it is 

 proposed to present to Congress at the next session. In a 

 general way this provides that all trees, fruits and other 

 horticultural products should only be allowed to enter the 

 United States at certain ports and under regulations pre- 

 scribed by the General Government ; that all these articles 

 shall be examined by inspectors for such ports, andif clean 

 they shall be entitled to a certificate from such inspector 

 and delivered to the consignee ; but if infested with any 

 insect or the germs of any disease they must be shipped 

 back from whence they came or be destroyed within three 

 days from the time of inspection. Now, there is little 

 doubt that Mr. Craw, the efficient inspector of the California 

 quarantine, has done much to protect our horticultural 

 interests from dangerous insects which have entered Cali- 

 fornia ports from Japan, the Sandwich Islands, China, New 

 Zealand, Australia and Mexico, but, of course, the country is 

 not adequately protected with an inspector at one port on 

 the Pacific Ocean. But the difficulty of devising a law 

 for the whole country which shall at once be consti- 

 tutional and effective is serious, as we have more than 

 once pointed out. Individual states may take action to 

 head off these invasions, but the obstacles in the way of 

 controlling traffic between states seem almost insurmount- 

 able. It would seem that Congress ought to be able to 

 shut out the infested oranges of Mexico by a prohibitive 

 tariff, or in some more direct way, just as Germany excludes 

 American pork. But, in order to organize a campaign 

 against this or any specific pest, we must know the danger- 

 ous insects and know where they are. It would seem, as 

 Professor Cockerell suggests, that in every country from 

 which we receive plants a competent entomologist should 

 be stationed to determine the presence of pests and warn 

 the people of their probable advent. Professor Townsend's 

 recent travels in Mexico for this very purpose show how 

 much there is to be done, and these traveling entomolo- 

 gists might, whenever the conditions warrant it, inspect the 

 quarantine stations at home and help to keep them in a 

 proper state of efficiency. 



The appearance of this Morelos orange-worm illustrates 

 precisely what such an agent might do, for it is only by 

 actually visiting Mexico that it could be ascertained where 

 the infested oranges grow, and once having that informa- 

 tion we could have protected ourselves if we had possessed 

 the necessary machinery on the border. Mr. Craw's late 

 reports show that about half the plants which arrive in 

 San Francisco are infested with scales or other insects, and 

 Professor Cockerell is constantly finding new ou.es. He 

 does not think it necessary that quarantine officers should 

 be skilled entomologists, but holds that any man with sharp 

 eyes, a ready memory, clear printed directions and a set of 

 specimens of the commoner insects could be trusted to 

 guard our interests. We do not coincide with this view. 



