io8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 473. 



how many country houses look bald and barren, how many 

 others seem smothered behind a meaningless and confused 

 mass of trees and shrubs, and how few home grounds are planted 

 or cared for with any taste, one cannot help feeling how much 

 more beautiful and cheerful rural and village homes would be 

 if every owner had some elementary schooling in the prin- 

 ciples of garden art. There is some excuse for requiring 

 landscape-gardening in a general college course ; a larger pro- 

 portion will be influenced by it than by almost any other sub- 

 ject. For instance, the number of people who own homes 

 is far in excess of those who grow fruit or vegetables for 

 market, and why should we not know how to beautify the 

 home as well as how to grow perfect Bartlett pears or Hub- 

 bard squashes ? Every home which is made a model in the 

 way of arrangement and planting remains for years a living 

 example for thousands of eyes to feast upon, while the pears 

 and squashes pass with the season. I would teach landscape- 

 gardening as a fine art, and quite as worthy of patronage as 

 music or painting. If every civil engineer and architect could 

 receive good fundamental training in landscape-art what a 

 world of natural beauty might then be preserved that is now 

 ruthlessly destroyed ! 



I will only add that, whatever the curriculum, personal in- 

 vestigation by students should be insisted on, and^thatin every 

 subject the more important literature should be mentioned 

 and discussed. 



Experiment Station, New Haven, Conn. 



IV. E. Br it 'ton. 



The Orange Fruit Worm. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — This insect, alluded to on p. 91, was described and 

 figured as long ago as August, 1888, in the first volume of 

 Insect Life, page 45. It is there called the Morelos Orange 

 Fruit Worm, Trypeta ludens. The orange growers of Cali- 

 fornia are much exercised over this insect just now, and they 

 are trying to induce Congress to pass an act establishing a 

 national quarantine. I consider the danger a present one and 

 see no reason why the pest cannot establish itself in our own 

 Orange-growing districts. The maggot will probably flourish 

 wherever the orange can grow, and while under natural con- 

 ditions it would probably not reach the United States for many 

 years to come, if at all, a dozen infested oranges exposed 

 for sale for sufficient time in southern California might 

 produce flies enough to stock the Orange groves of that region 

 in a very few years. 



Rutgers College, N. J. /• b. iumtll. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I am glad to note your remarks on the Orange-worm 

 in your editorial of March 10th. On the Pacific slope of Mexico, 

 the district about Yautepec and Cuautla, in the state of More- 

 los, is very badly infested. The chances are against finding a 

 sound orange coming from that district, and in the City of 

 Mexico one has to be on his guard against wormy fruit. The 

 prevalence of the pest is, doubtless, largely due to negligence 

 on the part of the orange growers. It is said that the Cordova 

 district, on the Gulf slope, is also infested. I have, however, eaten 

 many excellent oranges from that district, and fruit growers 

 there are said to be more careful in their methods than in the 

 Morelos valley. Two districts which are not infested are that 

 near Lake Chapala, on the line of the Guadalajara division of 

 the Mexican Central Railway, and the Hermosillo district in 

 the state of Sonora, both of which now send large quantities of 

 superb oranges to this country by rail. I am told that the Rio 

 Verde oranges, near the line of the Mexican Central's Tampico 

 division, are also sound. 



It would be a calamity to have this pest introduced into the 

 United States. Since the failure of the Florida crop, orange 

 buyers from this country have been buying up all the available 

 crops in Mexico. There is particular danger that, in the scarcity 

 of oranges in Florida, fruit from these districts may be taken 

 there as well as to New Orleans, Galveston and other Gulf 

 ports, where the worms might at once find a favorable field. 

 In the Morelos valley the Mangos are also badly infested by a 

 similar worm, possibly the same species. If introduced to this 

 country, the orange-worm might, perhaps, take a liking to 

 other fruit as well. 



It would be unfair to impose a prohibitory tariff on oranges 

 from Mexico as a whole, for the Hermosillo and Lake Chapala 

 districts supply the western sections of this country with fruit 

 at seasons when they do not come into competition with the 

 California oranges, and the Hermosillo crop, at least, is avail- 

 able long before the Florida oranges are fit to eat. But it is 

 the imperative duty of our Government to ascertain all the 



infested districts in Mexico and strictly forbid the importation 

 of fruit from those parts. 



The Mexican Government should also take rigorous meas- 

 ures against the pest and thus avert serious danger to an 

 important and growing industry in that country. It has been 

 suggested that, if all the wormy fruit that is now left to decay 

 on the ground in the orchards were promptly destroyed, it 

 would certainly reduce the damage from the pest very mate- 

 rially. 



Maiden, Mass. Sylvester Baxter. 



Meetings of Societies. 



National Fruit Growers' Convention. 



THE continued spread of the San Jose' scale, the recent in- 

 -*• traduction of several injurious insects from foreign coun- 

 tries, and the imminent danger of introducing the "Orange 

 fruit worm " from Mexico into the Orange districts of the 

 United States have thoroughly aroused horticulturists and 

 fruit growers generally to the importance of protection against 

 injurious insects. In almost every state, from New York 

 southward and west to the Mississippi or beyond, bills have 

 been introduced or enacted to regulate the distribution of 

 nursery stock so far as it is possible to do so without 

 coming into contact with legal interstate commerce. At 

 almost every meeting of fruit growers, at almost every horti- 

 cultural society and at almost every meeting of experiment 

 station workers the question of destroying the San Jose' scale 

 or preventing its spread into new localities has been up for 

 discussion. The matter was deemed so important that the Ohio 

 Horticultural Society, at a meeting during the winter, issued a 

 call for a delegate convention to be held at Washington, Fri- 

 day, March 5th, to consider the possibility or advisability of 

 securing legislation by the National Government in the direc- 

 tion of enforcing a quarantine against the introduction of 

 foreign insects and the regulation of the transportation of nur- 

 sery stock between the states. 



In response to this call a large number of delegates met at 

 Washington, Friday, March 5th. Most of the central states, 

 many of the northern central states, most of the southern states, 

 middle Atlantic states and California were represented at the 

 convention. In some cases a number of delegates attended 

 from a single state representing different societies, and a con- 

 siderable number of entomologists and horticulturists from 

 the experiment stations were also present. There were a 

 number of attendants who did not figure as delegates, but to 

 whom the privileges of the floor were extended, and altogether 

 there were at times nearly a hundred persons in the room in 

 which the meetings were held. During the morning session 

 several papers were read in which the possibility of regulating 

 or preventing the spread of insects and fungous diseases by 

 law was considered, and in a paper by B. M. Lelong, of Cali- 

 fornia, that state's experience was detailed. Dr. L. O. Howard 

 and Mr. B. T. Galloway, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, read papers on insects and fungous diseases, 

 respectively, and made suggestions as to the lines in which 

 legislation was possible. The outcome was the appointment 

 of a legislative committee of ten, in which nurserymen, fruit 

 growers and experiment station workers were represented, to 

 whom was intrusted the duty of preparing an outline of such 

 legislation as was considered advisable. This committee 

 organized immediately, electing Mr. William B. Alwood, of 

 the Virginia Station, as its chairman, and a hearing was had 

 during the afternoon, at which all the members present had 

 an opportunity of giving their views on the subject of what 

 such legislation should consist of. Quite a number of bills 

 had been prepared in advance, embodying the opinions of the 

 writers, and several of these were read to introduce and excite 

 discussion. The sessions were continued until late in the 

 evening and resumed on the morning of the 6th, when the 

 committee finally reported that they had been unable to agree 

 upon any proposed legislation for individual states, but sug-' 

 gested that all acts should contain a provision for the period- 

 ical examination of nurseries and fruit farms, and should 

 provide also for power to compel the destruction of dangerously 

 infested stock of all kinds. It was deemed best to deal with 

 the subject of interstate commerce and national quarantine in 

 one bill, and the following was finally agreed upon by all the 

 interests, after it had been discussed section by section. 



The importance of this meeting cannot be overestimated. 

 It is the first time that any large body representing not only 

 experiment-station workers, but nurserymen and fruitgrowers, 

 had met to discuss the subject, and at first it seemed that 

 interests were so diverse that no agreement could be reached. 



