In troduction 
Quarantine 37, an outgrowth of the Act of Aug. 20, 1912, went inte 
effect on July 1, 1919. Imposed ostensibly to protect this country against the 
introduction of new, injurious insects, its regulations have, as a matter of fact, 
been directed mainly and almost exclusively against the importation of the plant 
materials of “ornamental horticulture.’ Under the increasing burden of its 
severe, sweeping, discriminatory and often unreasonable restrictions, there has 
gradually risen during the past three years a mighty wave of resentment and 
protest on the part of those whose legitimate activities have been hampered or 
interfered with. These include both individuals, who are no longer able to secure 
the plants they want and need for developing their gardens and conducting scien- 
tific work, and commercial institutions that find it impossible to secure or handle 
commodities that they previously handled and for which there is still an active 
demand. In other words, both individual initiative and business progress have 
been checked and, in some cases, suffocated. 
And yet the actual reasons for these results and the way they have come about 
are even now clearly understood by only a small proportion of those whose inter- 
ests they threaten. Thousands of amateurs, plantsmen, growers and commercial 
horticulturists know merely that they can no longer secure the plants they want 
or need—or can get them only at prohibitive prices—without realizing why and 
without appreciating the still larger dangers to which a continuation of present 
conditions, an acceptance of existing policies and principles, an acquiescence to 
the vast interpretative and legislative authority assumed by the Federal Horti- 
cultural Board, may give rise. 
The F. H. B. has repeatedly referred in its defense of Quarantine 37 and 
its other rulings to “propaganda” against it, and to a wide misunderstanding of 
its aims and methods. Actually, there has been a more extensive and more defi- 
nitely organized propaganda for the Quarantine than against it; and certainly 
the existing misunderstandings are in the minds of those who support the ruling 
and refuse to attribute anything but misdirected and selfish motives to the great 
mass of citizens who are opposing it—for the latter have at heart the future 
welfare of American horticulture as a whole, knowing how much this can and 
should mean to the nation and its progress. 
The purpose of this pamphlet is to centralize horticultural trade opinion 
upon the basic facts to the end that there shall be given adequate, reasonable pro- 
tection against new, dangerous plant pests through a system of inspection and 
certification of imported plants, without the present day total exclusion of 
plants save such few exceptions as the F. H. B. sees fit to admit. 
May 15, 1922, marked the culmination of the first stage of the campaign 
against Quarantine 37. Secretary of Agriculture Wallace did preside at the 
conference and threw it wide open for “full an'd free discussion.” Ags a result, 
the facts were given wide publicity and brought to the personal attention of a 
Cabinet officer; the F. H. B. acknowledged that some of its actions may have 
been open to question; the legal status of Quarantine 37 was definitely ques- 
tioned and a conference arranged to consider it; and other conferences were 
planned at which specific recommendations involving modifications could be 
discussed. So the situation stands at present. 
