56 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
The National Nurseryman 
Established 1893 by C. L. YATES. Incorporated 1902 
Published monthly by 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN PUBLISHING CO., Inc. 
Hatboro, Pa. 
Editor .ERNEST HEMMING, Flourtown, Pa. 
The leading trade journal Issued for Growers and Dealers in 
Nursery Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
AWARDED THE GRA'SID PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION, 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year in Advance .$1.50 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance .$2.00 
Six Months .$1.00 
Advertising rates will be sent upon application. Advertisements 
shonld reach this office by the 20th of the month previous to the date 
of Issue. 
Payment In advance required for foreign advertisements. Drafts 
on New York or postal orders. Instead of checks, are requested by the 
Business Manager, Hatboro, Fa. 
Correspondence from all points and articles of Interest to nursery¬ 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Photographs and news notes of interest to nurserymen should be 
addressed. Editor, Plourtown, Pa., and should be mailed to arrive not 
later than the 25th of the month. 
Entered as second-class matter June 22, 1916, at the post office at 
Hatboro, Pennsylvania, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Hatboro, Pa., February 1917 
To an interested listener at- 
NURSERY INSPECTORS tending the meetings of the 
Horticultural Inspectors re¬ 
cently held in New York, two facts stand out very prom¬ 
inently, that all inspection and quarantines for the preven¬ 
tion of the introduction and spreading of insect pests and 
plant diseases are experimental, inadequate and inefficient 
for the purpose for which they are intended. Second 
that the efforts to accomplish the desired effect as far as 
the entomologists and inspectors are concerned are sin¬ 
cere. 
In the case of nursery inspection it was brought out 
that often the officials exceeded their authority in their 
efforts to accomplish the work they undertake. The in¬ 
spectors were often inefficient through lack of training, 
lack of funds to carry on the work and in spite of all the 
information available the field of endeavor in which they 
were working is an uncharted one. 
If the above be granted, and one could hardly listen to 
the discussions without granting it, it clearly points to 
the necessity of close cooperation between tbe inspectors 
and the nurserymen. 
The nurserymen should not look on the inspector as 
an officer of the law so much as a physician to whom to 
apply for diagnosis and remedies. The attitude of 
mind that puts it up to the inspector to discover diseases 
or pests and makes a government certificate of inspection 
final is all wrong and not in the proper spirit. 
The nurseryman worthy of the name is the only efficient 
inspector of his own stock and should be made to feel his 
responsibility, and if he cannot be made to do so, the 
sooner he is put out of business the better. The duty of 
both inspector and nurseiyman to the country at large as 
well as to themselves is to cooperate. 
Let the nurseryman do his own inspecting and consider 
it a prime duty, with a government inspector as a friend 
and adviser to check up the work. 
If it were not for the gravity of the case inspectors and 
quarantines to prevent the spread of diseases and pests 
would be a joke. It was brought out at the meetings 
that nursery inspection was done to comply with the law, 
rather than to accomplish its puriiose for which the law 
was made. Thus w^e have one man inspecting all the 
cotton, burlaps, etc., coming into the port of New York 
looking for a little bug in a dormant state. Another one 
inspecting carloads of jiotatoes for powdery scab. Then 
we have the inspectors passing through the forests look¬ 
ing for the white pine blister rust, and although the in¬ 
spectors may be bald^ clean shaven and sprayed oc¬ 
casionally, there is no provision made for treating the 
winds, rabbits, birds, etc., to prevent them from carrying 
the disease. 
The whole subject of quarantines and 
QUARANTINE inspection as now being agitated looks 
as if tbe entomologist bad been looking 
too long through the microscope, with the result that it 
has put his view entirely out of focus. This is causing 
an insane panic resulting in foolish laws and drastic 
quarantines. 
A quarantine prohibiting all imports of nursery stock 
from foreign countries is being agitated in the year of 
our Lord 1917. Is it possible the panic stricken entomo¬ 
logists and legislators have forgotten the animal and vege¬ 
table kingdoms of this world of ours were in existence 
unknown thousands of years before they came to take 
care of them and are likely to be after they are gone? 
If quarantines were effective remedies to prevent the 
spread of insect pests or diseases they would be worth 
consideration, as it is they are only so in theory and do 
little but prevent proper enterprise and business. 
While admitting we do not want any more plagues in 
the nursery business than we already have, we can hardly 
imagine one that is likely to be more harmful to the nur¬ 
sery interests or the country at large than a quarantine 
against all nursery stock. 
When the San Jose scale made its appearance, accord¬ 
ing to the entomologists, the fruit industry of the country 
was doomed, by the help of these same gentlemen we have 
better orchards than ever in spite of it. 
Instead of panic stricken quarantines and legislation, 
what is needed is more level headed measures based on 
actual knowledge. 
When a pest or disease is known then by all means take 
steps to combat it, but to put a quarantine into effect for¬ 
bidding the entry of all nursery stock, even from countries 
where as strict measures are used to combat insect pests 
and diseases as in our own, for fear of the unknown is 
hardly the action of statesmen with a knowledge of real 
facts. 
It is fairly common belief that it is possible to send a 
sample of soil to a good chemist, have it analyzed and be 
advised just what kind of fertilizer to use to produce a 
good croj). The summary of Rulletin No. 424 of the 
Cicoeva Experiment Station on Measurements of Soil 
Fertility states: “The general result of this investigation 
shows that we are not yet in a ])osition through labora¬ 
tory methods so far devised to measure the fertility of 
the soil.” 
