We All Pay the Price 



WE WERE lunching in a dining car of 

 one of the large eastern railroads when 

 the Professor pointed to two sweet 

 potatoes that had been brought in re- 

 sponse to my order and remarked: "It's a pity, 

 isn't it, that as long as you are going to pay for 

 three potatoes you only get two — and that through 

 no fault of the Railroad Administration or Mr. 

 Hoover, or even the war. " 



"Plant diseases are primarily responsible," he 

 continued, " and the other reason for your getting 

 less than you pay for is the ignorance of people 

 in general, and of the growers and handlers of the 

 sweet potato cropof what they do, what the troub- 

 les are, and how to cure and prevent them. In oth- 

 er words, twenty-four and a half per cent, of the 

 sweet potatoes harvested are destroyed, wasted, 

 before they reach the consumer, by rots that de- 

 velop under unfavorable storage conditions. An- 

 other seven and three quarters per cent, are de- 

 stroyed by diseases that attack the crop in the 

 field, so that on the whole just about one third of 

 the sweet potato crop or about 41 million bushels 

 is lost even though it is planted and ultimately 

 paid for by people who buy what is left. 



"That loss seems serious because it comes 

 right up against you, but there are many others 

 like it of far greater importance to the country 

 and just at present, to our Allies. For instance, 

 9 per cent, of our wheat crop — on an average 

 crop basis, 64,440,000 bushels — is destroyed 

 each year by plant diseases; so it is with two and 

 a half million bushels of beans 1,866,000 bales 

 of cotton, 117! million bushels of white potatoes, 

 and so on. 



"To put it another way, in 1917 the ex- 

 ports of rye from the United States amounted 

 to about fourteen million bushels, if it had not 

 been for one disease^ergot — they could have 

 been two and a half million more; the same year 

 smut destroyed twice as much corn as the country 

 exported; again, if bunt and loose smut had been 

 completely controlled — as they can be — we 

 would have been able to send the Allies 33 million 

 more bushels of wheat than we did. That's the 

 story all the way through the list of our farm, 

 garden, and orchard products." 



Not a very happy condition, is it? But fortun- 

 ately it is only part of the story, and the rest, 

 which has to do with the future as well as the re- 

 cent past, strikes a much happier note. For it 

 has to do with the mobilization of the scientists 

 of the country who are making the study of these 

 destructive diseases and methods for their control 

 their life work. Plant doctors, they are called 

 by most who know them and their work, but 

 formally they compose the American Phytopath- 

 ological Society, which is going to play a big part 

 in the future improvement of our agriculture and 

 the nation's increased production of food crops. 



In January, 1918, during its annual meeting 

 this organization decided that it had a real war 

 work to perform in making it possible for farmers 

 to harvest more of what they plant and for con- 

 sumers to obtain more of what is raised than has 

 been the case in the past — as suggested by the 

 figures given above. So the War Emergency 

 Board of the American Plant Pathologists was 

 created, with Professor H. H. Whetzel of Cornell 

 University as Chairman and Commissioner for 

 the Northeast, and seven other Commissioners 

 representing respectively the West, the Great 

 Plains, the Northcentral East, the Central East, 

 the South, Canada, and plant pathologists in 

 general, the latter representative being an expert 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The 

 speaker in the dining car was Professor 

 Whetzel. 



Already, there have been conferences and an- 

 other is to be held in Baltimore, December 27 to 



January I, to which a number of foreign plant 

 pathologists have been invited. 



The important fact is, therefore, that in the 

 war against plant diseases, the United States has 

 made a tremendous advance in the last twelve 

 months. This, in view of a statement made in 1914 

 by a leading German plant pathologist that this 

 country was then twenty-five years ahead of any 

 country of Europe in this subj ect, means a good deal. 



It remains only to call attention to the fact 

 that results cannot depend only upon the plant 

 doctors of the country, but also upon the rest of 

 the population. Those who are raising crops 

 must lend their aid by adopting a receptive 

 spirit toward the facts that are being learned, 

 and by acting upon the recommendations of the 

 plant pathologists as to how diseases may be con- 

 trolled and prevented. And the great mass of 

 the public should appreciate more clearly the 

 immense practical importance of the work these 

 scientists are doing. The country is responding 

 well to the call for the destruction of the form of 

 Barberry that serves as host for one stage of the 

 destructive wheat rust. But this is only one of 

 the menaces that threaten our food crops, which 

 are, after all, no less the food crops of all the 

 civilized world. 



But ornamental plants are also victims of dis- 

 ease, a fact however, that is not capable of equally 

 graphic presentation. Yet, for those who would 

 like to have the highest returns in pure beauty 

 the chart or table given on page 144 will appeal. 



The Next Step for 

 This Magazine 



/~\NLY poets and philosophers may with safety 

 ^-' construct definite plans for future events; 

 and yet it is hard to avoid falling in line with the 

 general practise of retrospect and forward vis- 

 ions as we cross the threshold of the year. The 

 winter is indeed the season of the gardener's dis- 

 content; there is little actual activity, but much 

 opportunity for reflection. As concerns our- 

 selves and our readers the past is past. B ut the 

 future — ? 



1919 marks the opening of a new era for the 

 work of the Garden Magazine. The campaign of 

 intensive food production followed through the 

 last two growing seasons has produced the de- 

 sired results. War Gardens are firmly estab- 

 lished for victory and for the peace that is com- 

 ing. Tillage of the soil has assumed a new 

 relation to the people and as the new day dawns 

 the garden will rise to a bigger and nobler place 

 in the life of the people. 



A Dip Into The Future 



The Garden Magazine, during the coming year, 

 will interpret this new spirit of the American 

 home garden, the pleasure as well as the com- 

 fort that is coupled with the making of the home 

 and its surroundings. In accord with the trend of 

 the times our pages will be more intimate, more 

 personal, with greater attention to the details of 

 materials used and the intrinsic merits of indi- 

 vidual plants; and while the practical service of 

 the home plot will not be forgotten — we will con- 

 tinue the work of introducing high quality var- 

 ieties in food plants — yet there will be more 

 attention given to the niceties of refinement and 

 artistic development of planting hardy trees and 

 shrubs; the production of flowers in profusion for 

 the adornment of the home; the delights and joys 

 of that most personal and intimate of all feat- 

 ures, the rock garden; we will take you in inti- 

 mate walks among rarities of the Arnold Arbor- 

 etum and other places of note, we will tell you 

 more about the joys of collecting and of growing 

 plants for their intrinsic quality and beauty; 

 known authorities will discuss the groups in 

 which they specialize. 



In short, the Garden Magazine having ' done 

 its bit" in the patriotic arousement of utility 

 gardening, will now step onward and resume its 

 even greater responsibility in helping to make 

 this land give a fit welcome "when the boys 

 come home." We dare not show ourselves "run 

 down at the heel." Our home nurseries are 

 stocked with home products to meet the need of 

 new conditions brought about by the disorgani- 

 zation of European industries. The people have 

 mastered the fundamentals of food gardening; 

 and besides, other agencies are now organized to 

 "carry on" efficiently. The pendulum swings 

 back and the cry is for the delights that may be 

 added to the new gardens- " Man cannot live by 

 bread alone." The new period that is opening 

 to American horticulture will find its progress 

 reflected in these pages. 



The Florists and Wartimes 



WHEN, through necessity in our war pre- 

 parations, various commissions were ap- 

 pointed by the Government to regulate, accelerate, 

 or restrict production in various lines of industry, 

 all engaged in raising plants and flowers were on 

 the "anxious bench," fearing that their business 

 might be classed as non-essential, and their 

 products as luxuries of a kind to be tabooed 

 during the continuance of the war. While the 

 florist industry, like many others, has been called 

 upon to make sacrifices, the question of essen- 

 tiality has not yet been raised, nor is it expected 

 that it will ever be. 



The first intimation that a limit was to be set 

 upon production came, about a year ago, with an 

 order that fuel for heating greenhouses would be 

 allowed only in proportion to half of what was cus- 

 tomarily necessary to maintain sufficient heat 

 throughout a winter, determined by an average 

 consumption in the three seasons preceding the 

 one to be afFected by the order. This meant, of 

 course, cutting down production fully one half, 

 by abandoning, as nearly as it could be done, 

 one-half of the area covered by glass. The out- 

 look was alarming to an industry the size of 

 which is hardly realized by the general public, 

 and the reaction is well presented in a letter 

 from the secretary of the Society of American 

 Florists to whom we applied for data. Mr. John 

 Young writes: 



"When it is realized that the estimated area in 

 the United States so covered and used is about 

 1,600 acres representing an investment for green- 

 houses of about $70,000,000 the loss in product 

 through disuse of buildings is very great. But 

 added to this must be the loss resulting from 

 the idle investment. Assuming that an establish- 

 ment comprise a glass area of 100,000 sq. ft. — ■ 

 there are very many such — and the valuation 

 was one dollar per foot, a figure not at all out 

 of the way, the owner would have a direct out- 

 of-pocket loss in the interest on an investment 

 of $50,000 alone, or $3,000, figured at six per 

 cent. On this basis it may be assumed that the 

 florists are losing, approximately, $2,100,000 

 per annum through out-of-pocket expense alone, 

 besides the legitimate profit which might be 

 derived from the operation of the closed houses. 



"And this is not all. Many establishments 

 have been housing enormous stocks of tropical 

 and semi-tropical plants which cannot be sub- 

 jected to low temperatures, and how to take care ' 

 of these during winter has been a problem hard 

 to solve. Of course, stocks have during the year 

 been reduced as much as possible, but such 

 growers are confronted with the prospect of large 

 losses, unless the crowded-out material can be 

 removed to districts where it can be housed with- 

 out the necessity for artificial heat. 



"But the florists have cheerfully accepted the 

 situation. Was it not imposed upon them that 

 we might win the war? Because from the nature 

 of their business their losses were necessarily 

 greater under the restrictions imposed than 

 would be the case in other industries, whose man- 

 ufactured stock and materials could be easily 

 shelved or stored without depreciation, have they 

 given evidence of depressed spirits or forebodings 

 of ruin? No, indeed! They have taken part 

 of their products into war work of the human- 

 itarian kind and are helping to soothe some of the 

 sufferings our wounded and sick soldiers and 

 sailors are called upon to endure. 



"Early this year, Mr. Frederick R. Newbold, 

 treasurer of the Horticultural Society of New 

 York and one of the directors of the American 

 Fund for French Wounded, approached the 

 Society of American Florists, through the secre- 

 tary's office, with the suggestion that it promote 

 some organized work covering the supply of 

 flowers to the sick and wounded returned from 



133 



