am 



[November, 1912. 



& progressive agriculture is essential to the well-being of the nation. This 

 is not the time to discuss the nature of the questions wnich press upon us 

 to-day ; but let us not forget that they are our questions. To this newly- 

 formed section of the British Association has descended the task of the 

 early associations ; it is the privilege of its members to preserve and to 

 hand down to their successors that spirit of the improver which animated 

 alike the ancient writers of Greece and Rome and the British societies 

 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; and to-day we may take to 

 ourselves the exhortation of Walter Blith, for his words apply to Section 

 M. as they did to its predecessors, "from you, I expect and wait for more 

 discoveries of some thing, I scarce know what to name it, which lies yet 

 in obscurity, but I will call it the Improvement of the Improver." 



EXPORT OF PLANTS TO SOUTH AFRICA. 



The following is a copy of a notice received by the Department of 

 Agriculture regarding the export of plants to South Africa :— 



UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



NURSERYMEN WITH SOUTH AFRICAN CUSTOMERS are hereby 

 respectfully informed that plants, excluding bulbs and seeds, are admitted 

 into the Union from oversea only under special permit. Permits are not 

 given at all for conifers, or for eucalyptus, or acacia trees. They are 

 freely given without regard to quantity for house palms, ferns, carnations, 

 geraniums, chrysanthemums, orchids and many other tender plants ; but 

 are given only for ten plants of a vaiiety in the case of ornamental shrubs. 

 While for fruit bearing plants and roses and for trees in general, they are 

 given only for varieties that are not procurable in the Union and that can- 

 not be grown from seed, and for not more than ten of a kind. It is des- 

 irable that nurseymen refrain from filling any order in the absence of 

 knowledge that a permit has been issued oris practically certain to be 

 issued with respect to it. Applicants are supplied with permits in dup- 

 licate so that one copy may be sent with the order. Lables and 

 INVOICES should invariably give the varietal names of trees shrubs, roses, 

 climbers, etc., as otherwise the inspectors may not be able to connect the 

 plants with the permits. In filling orders for the latest varieties of rosep, 

 and orders for other plants for which customers may say they are unable 

 to get permits in advance of ordering owing to their not being able to give 

 the varietal names, it is advisable to send to the customer a list of what 

 varieties will be supplied a week or two ahead of despatching the plants. 

 This action would admit of the customer getting a pel mit before the plants 

 arrive and thus perhaps avoid serious delay in the delivery of the 

 consignment- 



Department of Agriculture, 

 Division of Entomology, 



Box 513, Pretoria 4 , 

 September, 1912, 



