Mr. Moon's Address at the Spring Meeting 
The foregoing articles are the speeches made by Mr. Wister and 
Mr. Craig at the Spring Meeting on March i yth. A no less interesting 
talk was given by Mr. J. Edward Moon, President of the National 
Association of Nurserymen, but we did not secure a copy of it. 
Mr. Moon spoke of the growth of his Association both in im- 
portance and numbers. It now includes 400 firms dealing in all 
branches; forest trees, fruits, ornamental trees and shrubs, citrus 
crops, reforestation, etc. He told of two committees which should be 
particularly interesting to members of the Garden Club; the Vigi- 
lance Committee which keeps a sharp lookout for unethical practices 
and invites complaints; and a committee which on apphcation will 
search out among the many nurseries rare, scarce and unusual plants, 
not catalogued, possibly because of the small supply or because they 
are tucked off in some forgotten corner or because the demand is so 
infrequent. Requests for service by this committee should be ad- 
dressed to the Bureau for Unusual Plants and sent to John Watson, 
Executive Secretary, Princeton, New Jersey, to whom any com- 
plaints for the Vigilance Committee should also be sent. 
Mr. Moon spoke of the serious effect of Quarantine 37 upon 
the nurseries of the country and deplored the epidemic of state 
quarantines recently established. He admitted that the motive 
was justifiable but felt that in many cases these local quaran- 
tines were unnecesary and the methods of enforcing them unwise. 
The nursery business is necessarily one of long time investments. 
Unless the nurseryman can be sure of a market when his stock reaches 
maturity he cannot risk the initial cost. Government methods 
have made so uncertain the ultimate market that progress and im- 
provement are endangered. He spoke of one nursery that had suffered 
a loss of $100,000. another $30,000 through State Quarantines, while 
the loss to all nurseries has been upward of $1,000,000. Since nurseries 
are not capitalized on a large scale these figures are, on a percentage 
basis, very large. Combined horticultural interests must find some 
way to meet the crisis produced by Quarantine 37 but the same in- 
terests must give equal attention to the State Quarantines which 
are manifestly unfair in that a quarantined state may send out in- 
fected stock but closes its borders to all importation. Some of the 
states most insistent upon the Quarantine are flagrant offenders in 
this particular. 
Mr. Moon's address inspired great confidence in the organization 
which he represented and formed a basis for cordial relations be- 
tween the amateur, professional, and commercial interests which 
hitherto, perhaps, have understood each other too httle. 
K. L. B. 
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