47 



entomologist and a pathologist who are acquainted with diseases and 

 insects of royal palms in general and this lot in particular who declare 

 the palms free from injurious insects and diseases, and in the other 

 hand an' inspector who is neither an entomologist nor a pathologist 

 (according to report) and who does not know the diseases and insects 

 of royal palms in Cuba declares them diseased. 



Under these circumstances I think the Secretary of the Federal 

 Horticultural Board would have been justified in writing to the Plant 

 Commisioners for more explicit information, and that he should have 

 done so before writing to the shipper, and failing to receive more 

 explicit information should have refrained entirely from expressing 

 his intention of withdrawing permits should the offense be repeated. 



Letter from Wilmon Newell to J. R. Johnston, dated Sept. 14, 1916. 



Will say that I have recently returned from a trip to Miami, 

 where I gave this matter careful investigation. Specimens of the 

 fungus infected trunks of the palms were preserved and I am sending 

 you one of these specimens in separate package. The specimens wexd 

 of course covered to a greater or less extent with saprophytic fungi 

 after being taken from the shipment, and were later preserved iji 

 formaldehyde, so that I doubt very much if the specimen will be of 

 any value in determining the nature of the trouble. 



I am sure that, had you been able to personally see the condition 

 of these palms when they reached Miami, there would have been no 

 question in your mind as to the necessary of immediately destroying 

 the worst infected ones. Sixteen of the palms out of the twenty-Six in 

 the case were practically destroyed by fungi when the car arrived at 

 Miami. These were burned. The remaining ten were cleaned as well as 

 possible, scrubbed with Bordeaux mixture, set out, and again sprayed, 

 with Bordeaux. Most of these ten have since died, and the remaining 

 ones do not give much promise of remaining alive. 



Iietter from J. E. Johnston to Wilmon Newell, dated Sept. 20, 1916. 



The specimens of diseased palms have been received. I greatly 

 appreciate your efforts to help us to ascertain the cause of the trouble 

 in the palms. I hope that your pathologists have made some examina- 

 tion of the material, for I regret to say that this specimen does not 

 enable us to decide the cause of the trouble. 



Continued examination of thousands of palms trees in Havana 

 province still fails to show any disease present. Several reported cases 

 have always shown up as due to insect injury. 



I trust that you bear in mind that we do not maintain that the 

 palms arrived in good condition. We do laelieve, however, that their 

 bad- condition was due entirely to same physical injury before they 

 were removed from the soil, or that they were injured in the rernoval 



