THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
157 
a sentiment is created to shut out the agricultural and horticul¬ 
tural products from each others countries. 
It is difficult to say where this tendency would lead to, it is 
impossible to draw a line and the outlook seems to me from an 
economic as well as scientific standpoint, anything but elevat¬ 
ing. 
Prof. Westerdyk enumerated in a recent lecture a great num¬ 
ber of plant parasites which are found in America and which 
can be brought into Europe on Agricultural and Horticultural 
products, where they are unknown up to the present time. This 
number could be greatly increased. 
If, as a consequence of this fact every country in Europe 
were to arm itself with quarantine actions such as the F. H. B. 
has taken the international attitude would become this, that 
every country must make itself independent of foreign sup¬ 
plies. 
If these methods were to be generally adopted, the aspect 
for the international cooperation and appreciation on scientific 
matters would become very gloomy and from an economic 
point of view, all countries, America included, which export in* 
portant quantities of agricultural and horticultural products, 
would suffer greatly. 
I would like to ask you what is a plant disease? And I must 
ask this question with particular emphasis, as in a lecture by 
the Chairman of the F. H. B. in defense of the plant quarantine, 
I read that a list of 3000 dangerous insects had been compiled, 
and of a larger number of Fungi which all appear in European 
cultures and which might constitute a severe danger for Amer¬ 
ican agriculture. 
What do you imagine would remain of European agriculture 
and horticulture if all these parasites were dangerous or even 
partly so? This brings me back to what I said about the one¬ 
sided conception of the phytopathology, which sees in every 
insect or in every Fungus which appears on a plant an econom¬ 
ical danger. 
It is your Dr. Beatty who rightly said: “We get hundreds of 
suspicious diseases and insects that turn out to be nothing,” 
and if you consult the pliytopathological literature of the last 
20 years you will find that thousands of diseases which are 
described as dangerous parasites have never done any more 
harm to the cultures than that which existed in the imagination 
of the discoverer. 
Science stands absolutely unprejudiced and knows moreover 
that it can never determine a thing for indefinite time. History 
has taught over and over again that the conclusions to which 
scientific inquiries come at a given moment must only be re¬ 
garded in the light of the facts known at that moment. Her 
sublime purpose remains to aim at the truth and she therefore 
gladly abandons a once accepted standpoint if newly discovered 
facts justify that course. 
The classical examples in the history by which the old 
scientific bodies, which believed in their narrow minded own 
authority that they stood above science itself, and with curse 
and banishment tried to stop the large new discoveries, have 
sufficiently proven the truth of the foregoing. 
It is therefore that I have read with great appreciation that 
the various restrictions embodied in the order are not neces¬ 
sarily final; also the communication of the F. H. B. that the 
rules of the Plant Quarantine Action are made in the full con¬ 
fidence that this was the best solution, but that they would 
gladly consider modifications in the rules if new and further 
information was produced. 
One must not forget that the science is there not only for the 
study of the science itself, but it must be practiced as applied 
science for the general benefit. 
So the task of pliytopathological science is to protect Agri¬ 
culture and Horticulture of every country against foreign and 
domestic plant enemies by practical methods which take into 
consideration the claims of commerce as well as the claims of 
abstract science. 
A true interpretation of the task of the modern phytopath¬ 
ologist is not the design of measures which will do away with 
the offending agents at all costs, regardless of the commercial 
considerations, but the new task is to harmonize the protective 
work of the scientist with the wealth producing activities of 
agriculture and horticulture, that the latter are continually 
advanced and improved. 
Ou this basis it is of paramount importance that any measure 
for protection taken in this connection has due regard for the 
international application of such measure. If the basis of the 
international exchange in plant products is reasonable freedom 
from plant enemies, every basis, such as absolute quarantine 
against latent plant enemies, cannot be justified from the point 
of view of the practical scientist. 
It is without doubt a higher ideal for the applied science to 
overcome the difficulties of the cultivation by controlling the 
diseases, by the extermination of parasites, through the cul¬ 
tivation of disease resisting varieties and especially by intro¬ 
ducing such methods of cultivation by which in the battle be¬ 
tween plant and parasite, the first triumphs; than by searching 
for arguments for the exclusion and by seeking its strength in 
a strong isolation. 
This is the reason why I, with hope for success, will try to 
give you an idea how we in our bulb cultures have taken the 
control of diseases in hand and what results we have obtained. 
You will then see that the scientifically applied phytopath¬ 
ology can reach its purpose without being compelled to insti¬ 
tute a plant exclusion. 
The Dutch bulb growers offer the United States a product 
which has been grown scientifically, under expert care and 
supervision of the Netherlands Phytopathologists. The same 
product is as free from plant diseases and insects as it is 
humanly possible to produce. It equals in cleanliness any ag¬ 
ricultural products which the United States exports to Holland. 
I do not wish to say that you will never find a soft bulb in a 
shipment, but that condition need not be due to a disease of 
the bulbs, just a little as the decaying process in a bruised 
apple is necessarily due to a disease of the apple. 
It is difficult to picture you here, how free from disease the 
Bulb stocks are in Holland. To get a full appreciation of this 
situation one should visit Holland and make personal observa¬ 
tions, but I can tell you that I can show you many stocks of 
500,000 and more Narcissus and Hyacinths of one variety in 
which not a single diseased plant can be found. 
First of all a profitable cultivation is only possible if the 
stocks are kept scrupulously clean and free from disease, and 
this is for our bulb growing industry strictly necessary, before 
we aim at supplying a healthy product to the foreign buyer. 
In order to continue to produce clean bulbs the stocks must 
be kept in a healthy state, so that the increase will be as pro¬ 
lific as possible and of strong vitality. 
Only such a condition can promise a final profit to the grow¬ 
ers, as a very small percentage of the diseased plants is suffi¬ 
cient to take away the chance of profit. 
The suppression of the few bulb diseases has been accom¬ 
plished in a manner which I shall describe with a few words. 
Take the eelworm about which you have heard from time to 
time. 
In the Spring highly trained specialists go through the stocks 
looking for any infected plant which may appear. On sunny 
days these men are armed with umbrellas to obtain a neutral 
light on the plants before them. If the specialist find a sus¬ 
pected plant he lifts it out of the ground with a large round 
borer which takes along the soil about the plant for a diameter 
of 6 to 8 inches. 
The specialist places a marking stick near the spot where 
the plant has been taken out. The plant is examined by cutting 
the bulb open to ascertain whether the same is sound or at¬ 
tacked by disease. If in the latter condition a gang of working 
men is directed to the spot where this particular bulb has been 
found. They scoup out the surrounding bulbs and soil for a 
width of from one to two square feet, which soil is then care¬ 
fully removed to a place where the parasites can not do any 
harm. This method makes both the soil and the stocks free 
from eelworm. To further combat the spread of this parasite 
the field in which a diseased plant has been found is turned to 
a depth of 2 to 3 feet in the Fall and the planting stock of a 
variety in which symptoms of the disease have been discovered 
is subjected to a treatment in hot water which is so effective 
that not a single diseased plant can be found the following 
spring. 
I brought with me various photographs showing details of 
these combative methods. 
All these things go to show with what painstaking care the 
elimination of diseases in the bulb cultures takes place and our 
efforts have been crowned with such a success that in the 
large majority of stocks these methods need not be applied any 
more. The inspection is continued as a preventive measure 
but more than 99% of the stocks are as a whole now absolutely 
free from eelworm. The remaining one per cent of stocks 
which may be affected show the diseases in a sporadic manner. 
A visit of any scientist will bear out the truth of this state¬ 
ment. # 
As an evidence of the good results obtained I submit photo¬ 
graphs of very large stocks of bulbs of which I can peisonally 
