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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 1919 



Absurdities in Quarantine No. 37 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



THE more Quarantine No. 37 is considered the 

 more utterly absurd does it appear. The 

 marvel is that anybody of intelligence could de-» 

 vise so senseless a measure — one so entirely op- 

 posed to reason. Our governmental administra- 

 tion of railroads, telegraphs, mail, and express 

 has in every case given us poorer service at en- 

 hanced prices, and the new exclusion order of the 

 Federal Horticultural Board seems perfectly in 

 keeping with the spirit of these others; and no 

 matter what protests are made the general an- 

 swer from the present powers-that-be of the Fed- 

 eral Horticultural Board is that they are ready 

 to receive any "constructive recommendations." 



It is probably of little avail to say anything of 

 the present personnel of the Federal Horticul- 

 tural Board. The present Assistant Secretary of 

 Agriculture informs me that it is composed of very 

 capable men who have all their lives studied "prob- 

 lems of plant life, plant diseases and pests, and 

 the structure of plants." The fact remains just 

 the same that the Board does not contain a solitary 

 practical horticulturist. Had it contained such 

 it is doubtful if this sweeping Quarantine 37 

 could have been promulgated. 



We are all just as desirous as the Federal Hor- 

 ticultural Board to bar out diseases and insect 

 pests. As practical horticulturists we probably 

 have an even greater yearning for a diminution 

 in the ranks of all insect foes; our interest is per- 

 sonal — theirs academic. In my own special case 

 it means the purchase of three or four tons of ar- 

 senate of lead annually to protect our trees and 

 shrubs from but one pest, which was turned loose 

 by an entomologist near Boston some years ago. 

 I refer to the gipsy moth. Now we are threat- 

 ened with still another drastic quarantine due to 

 the coming of the corn root borer and $500,000 

 is being asked of Congress to help fight this 

 newer pest in Massachusetts alone. This new 

 foe did not come in on nursery stock, our federal 

 department thinks that it "probably arrived on 

 rope, jute, or hemp straw"; there has not as yet 

 been any recommendation made for the debar- 

 ring of these useful but pest-carrying commodities. 



The Federal Horticultural Board has received 

 so many letters of protest that they felt it neces- 

 sary of late to send broadcast a lengthy memo- 

 randum in which they made a somewhat pathetic 

 attempt to justify their coming embargo. Their 

 duties are supposed to be chiefly the exclusion 

 of undesirable insects, and diseases, but finding 

 their position increasingly untenable they are 

 telling us of the benefits of home production of 

 all excluded plants. Congress has never given 

 them powers to enact fiscal legislation, however, 

 and their effrontery is only matched by their 

 ignorance of practical horticulture when they say 

 that they see no reason why all excluded plants 

 cannot be "promptly produced" in this country. 



Let us consider for a few moments a number 

 of the subjects to be excluded after June 1, which 

 are to be "promptly produced" at home. Or- 

 chids first. They are one of the glories of our 

 exhibitions; were at one time classed as the play- 

 things of millionaires, but are now grown in large 

 numbers in both private and commercial estab- 

 lishments in far from affluent circumstances. 

 s 'ome I could name grow them in their homes. 

 The bulk of imported Orchids came to us from 

 Central America and the East Indies. None of 

 these are grown out of doors in this country. 

 They are examined before shipment; on arrival 

 are fumigated heavily, and not infrequently this 

 causes the death of 10 to 50 per cent of the 

 plants; and are further reexamined on entering 

 various states. I hey have never in the past car- 

 ried insects which have caused damage in gardens, 

 farms, orchards, or woodlands; and it has never 

 been claimed that they have carried any new 

 diseases, yet they are to be entirely excluded. 



A letter of protest to the Secretary of Agricul- 



ture brought the writer a list of insects which had 

 been found on Orchids. The chief of these are 

 mealy bug, scale in variety, Cattleya fly, and 

 Orchid midge. The two latter attack Orchids only, 

 the former were here before any Orchids were im- 

 ported. The same letter contained the state- 

 ment that the principal Orchid importers here 

 were going into the raising of seedlings of Orchids 

 and were "through" with imported stock. If these 

 growers exist I would be glad to learn of their 

 whereabouts as / have been unable to locate them! 



It takes about twelve months to ripen a pod 

 of Cattleya seed, I have not been able to flower 

 any seedlings in less than three and one-half 

 years and far the greater number take 5, 6, 7, or 

 even 9 years to reach the blooming stage. This 

 means that any one starting now to produce seed- 

 ling Orchids on a commercial scale would prob- 

 ably have a limited number of plants for sale in 

 1924 if customers demanded plants in flower; but 

 it would be 1926, or 1927 before the main batch are 

 readyif fertilization of flowers is started forthwith. 



All our Bay Trees have come from Belgium. 

 The age of plants sold here is from 8 to 25 years, 

 in some cases 35 years. Boxwoods have also 

 come in from heroic Belgium. They are of slow 

 growth and the average plants sold here are 12- 

 15 years old. Have we the climate, the skillful 

 growers, and those' willing to wait these long 

 years for financial returns? 



Take Hybrid Rhododendrons. It is necessary 

 to grow stocks before these are grafted and on an, 

 average plants we receive here have 6 and 7 years 

 of growth. The same applies to Azalea indica, 

 all of which have in the past come from Belgium. 

 I am aware that a firm on the Pacific Coast some 

 years ago embarked in the growing of Rhododen- 

 drons and Azaleas on a large scale. Their plants 

 grew more rapidly than in Belgium but unfor- 

 tunately stock received by various eastern grow- 

 ers from this source produced practically no flow- 

 ers, and the firm in question went into the hands 

 of receivers some time ago. 



Belgium has also in the past produced nearly 

 all our Araucarias or Norfolk Island Pines, also 

 a great proportion of our Palms as well as a great 

 number of Orchids. All her plant products are 

 now debarred after her growers have for more than 

 four terrible years struggled to keep some portion 

 of their stock for us. We are told that bugs 

 abound in the soil which contains the roots of 

 these plants, yet we continue to import as many 

 thousand bales of peat moss litter as we want, and 

 are not these likely to be as fertile carriers of bugs 

 and diseases as the roots of plants? 



We will be allowed to import certain stocks of 

 Roses and fruit trees after June 1 as these cannot 

 be successfully produced here, but budded or 

 grafted Roses or fruit trees of the smallest size 

 are debarred. It requires more sophistry than 

 even the members of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board possesses to convince any intelligent man 

 or woman that the one is a more potent factor for 

 evil than the other. In this connection it is in- 

 teresting to note that certain propagators here — 

 a few in the East, but more in the West — demand 

 these stocks but favor exclusion of allgr<?/i(«fplants! 

 Their idea of course is to start grafting and by 

 excluding foreign supplies to .corner the home mar- 

 ket and get much higher prices than prevail 

 to-day. 



Holland has practically decided to refuse to 

 sell any stocks here if other plants are excluded 

 and indications point strongly toward similar 

 action on the part of Britain and France for our 

 unfriendly legislation. If they won't sell us 

 stocks (and we as yet cannot produce suitable 

 ones at home) are not our Rose and fruit pro- 

 pagators going to be in somewhat of a quandary? 



Coming down to bulbs absurdities become even . 

 more pronounced. Liliums and Lily-of-the-val- 

 ley, the latter purely a German product, are per- 

 mitted entry if no sand, soil or earth is about 

 them. Any practical grower knows that it is 

 utterly impossible to ship these and have them 



arrive without shriveling or rotting unless they 

 are packed in compost of some kind. 



We are to be graciously permitted to receive 

 Hyacinths, Tulips, Narcissus, and Crocus, but 

 cannot hereafter get any Iris, Ixia, Snowdrops, 

 Chionodoxa, Scillas, Fritillarias, Begonias, Glad- 

 iolus, Gloxinias and many other useful bulbs. 

 The Federal Horticultural Board is unable to 

 give any good reason why the latter group is any 

 more likely to prove any more dangerous than 

 the former. The Board, however, endeavors to 

 cheer us up by showing pictures of bulb fields 

 the Dept. of Agriculture is experimenting with 

 in California; and to their glory be it said they 

 actually in 1917 and 1918 shipped one carload of 

 bulbs to Washington to help augment the marvel- 

 lous good being done by the free seed distribu- 

 tion, which has proved such a Godsend to im- 

 pecunious Congressmen! 



Who is going to "very promptly produce" all 

 the lovely varieties of excluded bulbs? Some 

 we may get in California, but that state has not 

 proven of great value in the production of Hya- 

 cinths, Tulips, and Narcissus; and one large firm 

 there has decided to pull up stakes and try farther 

 north, in the Columbia River bottom lands. We 

 are only as yet experimenting with bulbs. Are 

 we able to produce a "Holland in America"? 



The Federal Horticultural Board knows per- 

 fectly well that an embargo on all plant importa- 

 tions won't keep out pests and diseases. Nursery 

 stock is not responsible for the pink boll worm, 

 or the Hessian fly, or the gipsy moth, or the corn 

 root borer. The Government itself introduced 

 the White-pine blister-rust on its own importa- 

 tions, while the destructive Chestnut bark disease 

 is believed to have been carried by animals. 



Emphasis is being laid by the Federal Horticul- 

 tural Board on the possibility of still importing 

 novelties in limited numbers through the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, but experience in the past 

 has already proven that plants, seeds, and scions 

 after being unpacked, dried, fumigated, and 

 cooked there are in most cases worthless, and there 

 is small likelihood of this channel of supply being 

 much utilized. 



The whole situation seems most discouraging 

 and as though to add insult to injury a prominent 

 official from the Department of Agriculture said 

 in Boston on February 15th in reply to questions 

 which he could not answer that "Quarantine 37 

 is going into force on June 1 arid will stay forever;" 

 that "forty resolutions passed would not make 

 any change"; and that "Orchids and other flow- 

 ers do not amount to a bagatelle." "Forever" 

 is a long time. And we think Dr. Galloway and 

 the members of the Federal Horticultural Board 

 will in the not distant future have abundant 

 cause to regret their arrogant attitude toward 

 the horticultural interests of America. 



Faulkner Farm, Brookline, Mass. W. N. Craig. 



A Constructive Suggestion 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



TROUGH my official position as Superinten- 

 dent of Parks of one of the largest park 

 systems in the country, a position which I have 

 held now for fourteen years after serving ten 

 years in a similar capacity in another (Eastern) 

 city, I feel justified in claiming that I am repre- 

 senting, through my plea, thousands of people 

 who take great interest in this matter, but who 

 have no means of knowing what is going on or how 

 to present and defend their cause. I beg leave to 

 present the following suggestions: 



1. That the Federal Horticultural Board be requested through 

 Congress to postpone the enforcement of Quarantine Order No. 37. 

 for at least one year, during which time the question can be thor- 

 oughly considered from all points of view and interests. 



2. That the membership of the Federal Horticultural Board be 

 changed so that there shall be not less than two professional horti- 

 culturists of practical commercial experience in said Board of five 

 members. 



3. That a questionnaire blank be drawn up, printed and distrib- 

 uted among all horticulturists all over the country, through 

 which a large amount of valuable and determining information will 

 be secured and be available for any final conclusions. 



Minneapolis, Minn., 



Theodore Wirth. 



