34 
House & Garden 
THE EMBARGO ON YOUR FLOWER GARDEN 
A Short Analysis of Quarantine No. 37 , Effective June 1 , 1919 , and Which Excludes 
Many Shrubs, Trees and Flowers Formerly Imported to the 
United States From Other Countries 
N OTHING in the horticultural world, 
amateur, professional or trade, in many 
years has created the amount of dissension that 
has been caused by the famous—or infamous, 
according to the point of view!—Quarantine 
Ruling No. 37, whereby the importation of 
foreign plants is greatly curtailed. 
Its advocates claim that it will protect 
American horticulture and agriculture to the 
extent of millions of dollars annually. That 
it will stimulate the production, not only of 
more and better stock in America, but will help 
to popularize the many good things we now 
have that are not widely known, and will in¬ 
crease the production of new things for the 
future, thus greatly benefitting American gar¬ 
dening in general. 
Its antagonists complain that the argument 
of ‘‘protection” in connection with the quaran¬ 
tine is mere camouflage—that its real purpose 
is to erect an economic barrier like a high tariff 
wall for the benefit of certain interests in this 
country; that many of the best things which 
American gardeners have been using will be 
lost to American gardens because they cannot 
be grown here at all, or not grown cheaply 
enough to make them commercially possible, 
and that American gardens will be isolated 
from the rest of the world, losing seriously as 
the result of this autocratic plant exclusion 
which is not really necessary, or effective as 
protection against insects and disease. On 
both sides there are many serious and sincere 
partisans. 
What is the answer? 
Of course, time alone will tell. But in spite 
of a great deal of agitation to have the ruling 
repealed or amended, it is going into effect 
the day this is written. 
HAT is “Quarantine No. 37”? 
This quarantine is a “blanket” quar¬ 
antine becoming effective June 1st as the re¬ 
sult of a ruling passed by the Federal Horti¬ 
cultural Board, a body appointed by the Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture under the Plant Quarantine 
Act passed August 20th, 1912, and amended 
March 4th, 1913, and March 4th, 1917. This 
act reads in part: “Sec. 7. That whenever, 
in order to prevent the introduction into the 
United States of any tree, plant or fruit disease 
or of any injurious insect, new to or not thereto¬ 
fore widely prevalent or distributed within and 
throughout the United States, the Secretary of 
Agriculture shall determine that it is necessary 
to forbid the importation into the United States 
of any class of nursery stock or of any other 
class of plants, fruits, vegetables, roots, bulbs, 
seeds or other plant products from a country 
or locality where such disease or insect in¬ 
festation exists, he shall promulgate such deter¬ 
mination, specifying the country and locality 
and the class of nursery stock or other class 
of plants, fruits, vegetables, roots, bulbs, seeds, 
or other plant products, which in his opinion, 
should be excluded. Following the promulga¬ 
tion of such determination by the Secretary of 
Agriculture, and until the withdrawal of the 
said promulgation by him, the importation of 
the class of nursery stock or of other class of 
plants, fruits, vegetables, roots, bulbs, seeds, 
F. F. ROCKWELL 
or of other plant products, specified in the 
said promulgation from the country and lo¬ 
cality therein named, regardless of the use for 
which the same is intended, is hereby pro¬ 
hibited; and until the withdrawal of the 
said promulgation by the Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture.” 
It prohibits the importation of nursery stock 
and other plants and seeds from all foreign 
countries and localities, on account of certain 
injurious insects and fungous diseases, except 
as provided in the regulations. The entry of 
the following plants for propagation is per¬ 
mitted under restriction: lily bulbs, lily-of-the- 
valley, narcissus, hyacinths, tulips, and cro¬ 
cus stocks, cuttings, scions, and buds of fruits; 
rose stocks, including manetti, brier rose and 
Rosa rugosa. 
Amendment No. 2 to this much mooted 
Quarantine No. 37 makes it possible to obtain 
special permit for importation in limited quan¬ 
tities, also limited stock under safeguard to be 
prescribed in special permit obtainable on ap¬ 
plication to the Secretary of Agriculture “for 
the purpose of keeping the country supplied 
with new varieties and necessary propagating 
stock.” 
Belief as to just what can or cannot be done 
under the various amendments, rules and regu¬ 
lations in connection with Quarantine No. 37 
varies greatly. The discussion at several gar¬ 
den club meetings which I have recently at¬ 
tended, showed that an understanding of the 
rulings was anything but clear. 
“Why should we make plans? We won’t 
be able to have any garden next year,” com¬ 
plained one speaker in literal seriousness. And 
at another meeting I heard a garden enthusiast 
remark, “Gardening will be so delightful when 
we don't have to bother with horrid sprays any 
more after all these detestable foreign insects 
and diseases have been shut out.” 
T HE most recent available interpretation 
as to just what really will be shut out is 
from W. F. Wery, L.L.D., Secretary of the 
Holland Plant Exporters’ Association. His 
list follows: 
Azaleas, Japanese varieties, mollis, Ghent, 
rustica and orientalis; Boxwood; berried plants 
for Christmas trade; Clematis and other climb¬ 
ing plants as Actinidia, Akebia, Ampelopsis, 
Aristolochia, Bignonia, Hedera, Lonicera, 
Lycium, Periploca, Polygonum and wistaria; 
Conifers in varieties as Abies, Cedrus, Cliamce- 
cyparis, Cryptomeria, Juniperus, Libocedrus, 
Picea, Pseudoiarix, Pseudotsuga, Retinispora, 
Sciadopitys, Taxus, Thuya and Tsuga; Die- 
lvtra; Evergreens, broad-leaved, Andromeda, 
Aucuba, Berberis, Cotoneaster, Erica, Evony- 
mus, Genista, Hex, Kalmia, Ligustrum, Ma- 
honia, Prunus, Vaccinium and Veronica; 
Funkias; Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora; 
Japan maples; lilacs, pot-grown for forcing; 
Lilium; Lily-of-the-valley; Peonies; Mag¬ 
nolias; Ornamental deciduous shrubs, Acer, 
Althea, Amygdalus, Berberis, Calycanthus, 
Ceanothus, Cercis; Ornamental deciduous 
trees, Acer, Esculus, Betula, Carpinus, Cas- 
tanea, Cerastus, Cercidiphyllum, Crataegus, 
Fagus, Gingko, Juglans, Liquidambar, Lirio- 
dendron, Mallus, Pavia, Populus, Prunus, 
Quercus, Salix, Sphora, Sorbus, Taxodium, Til- 
lia, Ulmus; Ornamental broad-leaved ever¬ 
greens, Aucuba, Laurus; Ornamental conifers; 
Phlox; Pot-grown plants for forcing, as Acer 
negundo, Amygdalus, Cerasus in double flower¬ 
ing and Japanese varieties, Crataegus, Cydonia, 
Cytissus, Deutzia gracilis and Lemoinei, For- 
sythia, Hydrangeas Hortensis paniculata and 
grandiflora, Mains in varieties, Philadelphus 
Lemoinei, Prunus triloba, Viburnum, Weigela 
and wistaria; Rhododendrons; Rhododendrons 
for forcing; Roses; Roses, named dormant; 
Spirea (Astilbe). 
H OW many of these things can we grow 
in America? 
Many advocates of the quarantine claim that 
there is practically nothing which we cannot 
produce here; that the only reason we have not 
produced before, instead of importing, is be¬ 
cause of the cheap labor abroad. The point 
has been made that if we stop importing for¬ 
eign nursery stock we will begin importing 
foreign nurserymen; that they will come over 
here and start nurseries, and w'e will still have 
foreign competition. The answer is that we 
can compete successfully with the foreigners 
if they have to produce stock under the same 
conditions, so far as labor and materials are 
concerned, as we do. They maintain that our 
slogan should be “American grown stock for 
Americans.” 
On the other hand, antagonists of the quar¬ 
antine claim that we lack the years of careful 
training required to produce the things which 
have been grown abroad; that many things 
cannot be grown here at all, because of climatic 
and soil conditions; and that even the things 
which can be grown will cost so much to pro¬ 
duce that the price to the consumer will be 
prohibitive. Further, that American capital is 
too impatient for results to grow the kind of 
things that have been grown abroad. Much 
stock being grown there is six or even ten years 
old before it is sold. 
Now it is generally admitted, even by those 
who have tried it, that we have not succeeded 
in growing many things here of the same qual 
ity as can be imported from the other side, re¬ 
gardless of price. This is claimed to be true, 
for instance, of such things as apple stock— 
that is, the whips upon which the varieties 
grown in this country are budded. Norway 
maples grown on the other side have clean, 
straight stems, while those produced here are 
crooked and inferior. 
How far these facts are due to soil and 
climatic conditions and how far to methods of 
culture which could be introduced here is a 
moot question which time alone will be able 
to answer definitely. 
W HATEVER either the extreme advocates 
or adversaries of the present quarantine 
may claim, the following facts seem to be evi¬ 
dent: Even if some of the things which we 
have had in our gardens heretofore will be 
practically lost as a result of the quarantine, 
there will still be plenty of planting material. 
(Continued on page 60) 
