156 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
COMITE COMMERCIAL HORTICOLE OF ANGERS AND 
COMITE COMMERCIAL HORTICOLE OF ORLEANS, 
FRANCE 
Angers and Orleans, May 2, 1922. 
Dr. Marlatt, Federal Horticultural Board, 
Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, Etats-Unis. 
Dear Sir: 
The French Nurserymen, members to the Horticultural Trade 
Committees of Angers and Orleans, being unable to send delegates 
to attend to the hearing called by you for May 15th at Washing¬ 
ton, have requested us to convey you their apologies for this ab¬ 
sence and they also take the liberty of putting forth to you the 
following declarations: 
Nurserymen of Angers and Orleans belonging to our commit¬ 
tees (list of which please find enclosed) have always endeavored 
to keep their cultures in the best possible sanitary state. They 
also make it a rule to help in every way what performances that 
have to be carried out by the Phytopathological Service as well 
as they strictly follow the instructions given out by that same 
service in connection to the destruction of insects and pests. 
If in the course of these last years some nests of Bombyx have 
been noticed in several packages, this can only be accounted 
for extraordinary circumstances due to the war, during which 
the clearing off of caterpillars and the destruction of all insects 
and pests in general had not been cai’ried out as it should have 
been and would have been in ordinary times. 
At the present, our committees are respectively in their own 
district in the lead of the movements aiming at the employment 
of means suitable to get rid of harmful pests to plants by such 
treatments as the sterilization and disinfection of the soil, also 
the destruction of fungus, caterpillars, cockchafers, etc. 
Regarding the questions you submit in reference to the amend¬ 
ment of Quarantine No. 37, we assume that same may only be 
modified so as to bring its regulations back to those you signed in 
1918. These rules which were applied in 1918-1919 allow the 
introduction of our plants under the necessary restrictions against 
the risk of infections. 
All the Phytopathological Stations are of opinion that dangers 
to encounter from the introduction of plant diseases and destruc¬ 
tive insects would have already been decreased had the Phyto¬ 
pathological and Entomological centres of the different nations 
worked together in the study of these destructive pests and 
insects and discussed on the scientific and practical means of 
making the plants clean and free of them. 
We now express the wish that these undertakings be started 
at the earliest. 
With reference to your remarks published in horticultural 
papers about the French prohibition of American living plants 
in order to protect our crops from foreign invaders such as the 
San Jose Scale and the Phylloxera, we may say that at the time 
such decision was taken, there did not exist in France (and most 
probably in any other country) any Phytopathological and Ento¬ 
mological service capable of inspecting and judging which con¬ 
signments of plants were free from diseases and which were not. 
The only means then left to us to protect our crops was that of 
preventing all imports. 
We now can give you the assurance that should the actual 
regulations of Quarantine No. 37 be modified in a way so as to 
allow our exporters to renew their trade relations with the 
American purchasers, we, in consequence, would insist upon 
the French Government with a view to obtain that the present 
restrictions on American imports should be removed, to the effect 
that American plants and fruits may be introduced here provided 
they are accompanied with a health certificate giving every guar¬ 
antee to our service of inspection. 
We further beg to add that the members of our committees have 
fully approved the resolution passed by the International Horti¬ 
cultural Trade Federation Congress held at The Hague on the 
20th of April last, copy of which resolution we beg to hand you 
herewith. 
We dare trusting that in the same time as you support the 
interests of the American florists and nurserymen, you will also 
take into consideration those of the nurserymen of our country 
who, after having so much suffering of the war, now meet with 
other difficulties, and that you will not finish destroying the exist¬ 
ence of an interesting class of the French horticulture by sup¬ 
pressing the export of its products. 
Hoping to receive a favorable answer, we beg to remain, deaf 
sir, 
Yours truly. 
The President of the Comite Commercial Horticole of Angers, 
Signed by M. MINIE, 
76, Rue Volney, Angers. 
The President of the Comite Commercial Horticole of Orleans, 
Signed by R. BARBIER, 
16, Route d’Olivet, Orleans. 
The French Federation Nationale des Syndicats Horticoles 
de France, grouping over 3000 nurserymen, florists, bulb grow¬ 
ers, etc., approve the above declaration as well as the decision 
of the Federation Horticole Professionnelle Internationale, and 
hope that Quarantine No. 37, which has already caused import¬ 
ant losses to our French growers, will be improved in a more 
liberal way. 
Paris, May 2, 1922. 
The General Secretary of the F. N. S. H. F., 
Signed by E. CURBAT. 
ADDRESS OF DR. E. VAN SLOGTEREN, LISSE, HOL¬ 
LAND, AT TI1E PLANT CONFERENCE AT WASH¬ 
INGTON, D. C., MAY 15th, 1922. 
As a Phytopathologist, or, as the growers call us, a, “Plant 
Doctor,” I will here enumerate some points which are of in¬ 
terest as well for the “Plant Doctors” as for the Plant growers. 
Like a medical doctor takes the interests of his patients to 
heart, so also must the plant doctor watch the interests of his 
patients. This is what the plant growers particularly want and 
if, in spite of this there exists a friction between the Plant 
growers and Plant doctors, it can only be due to a misunder¬ 
standing. 
That scientists have sometimes conflicting opinions you 
know too well, but this is furthering science more than harm¬ 
ing it. At the present, however, it is of more interest to know 
what is the cause of the misunderstanding between growers 
and phytopathologists. 
A plant doctor must give his assistance in a disease case of 
the plant, which is a combat between the interests of the plant 
and her enemy, and no matter how interesting and important 
this parasite may be for the plant doctor, he must realize that 
in this case the interests of the plant must come first, when he 
studies this process as a phytopathologist. 
Often, however, phytopathology is in the hands of an ento¬ 
mologist or mykologist, whose interest goes more in the direc¬ 
tion of the parasite than towards the plant. He is then easily 
inclined to attach too much weight to the parasite and con¬ 
siders the part which the plant plays in the disease-process too 
much as a passive part, or even neglects it altogether. 
It should therefore not amaze us, when we phytopathologists, 
sometimes do not arrive at the right aspects on the problems 
with our experiments and we should not blame the growers if 
they do not always show full confidence in our judgment, when 
we sometimes lack the fundamental knowledge of the condi¬ 
tions of life of the normal, healthy plant. 
While the entomologist, mykologist, or Botanist each in his 
department, can obtain very important results in his research¬ 
es, it is the phytopathologist who must study the relations and 
proportions between plant and parasites. 
First of all I want to emphasize that I greatly admire the 
numerous and important scientific accomplishments of the 
American Scientists in the department of phytopathology as 
well as in all other branches of science, and if I criticize, I do 
so only to serve the advancement of the international Phyto¬ 
pathology. 
My field of activity brought me in close contact, with the Amer¬ 
ican view of control of plant diseases which finds expression 
in the Plant Quarantine Action, which through its radical 
measures has acquired a large economic importance. 
This quarantine action the F. H. B. and the U. S. Department 
of Agriculture at Washington has stated repeatedly is founded 
on a purely scientific basis. 
The motive for science and Scientific Research must be the 
search for truth. 
There can be no American truth opposite to European truth, 
neither can there be European science opposite to an American 
science. Science is international, she knows no borders, and I 
therefore remain entirely upon my own dominion as a scien¬ 
tific man when I subject the scientific basis of the quarantine 
action to a closer examination and arrive at the conclusion 
that the methods adopted by the F. H. B. will be the finishing 
stroke to a sound international Phytopathological science. 
These methods must, without doubt, lead to the raising of 
objections against each others views, and instead of an inter¬ 
national cooperation in the study and control of plant diseases, 
