164 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
In the course of four years (1915-1918) they found no noxious 
diseases, 16 that had been known for years in the United States, 
8 organisms without parasitic characters, 21 insufficiently de¬ 
scribed fungi of no noxious influence. 
It strikes one that f. i. Botrytis parasitics on the tulips, which 
is spread on both sides of the ocean, has only been determined 
three times. We find mentioned Clomerella cingulata ( Gloesos- 
Poriurn fructigenum) , of which we know that the American 
strain of the fungus is different from the European as I put for¬ 
ward at the beginning of my speech. Rhazoctonia Solani has 
been found which is a parisite common in the soil in all parts 
of the world. Bacterium tumofaciena, the crown rot of apples, 
quinces was found in shipments. It is rather general here, but 
not of large economic influence, though well known to growers 
and pathologists. In the United States it is of more influence, 
causing a severe trouble with apple seedlings, and as for the 
quinces, a California grower told me that “tumors were normal 
on these plants.” It cannot be of any importance to their cul¬ 
tures whether B. tumefaciens be imported or not. We do not 
know whether it is a question of difference in strains in the bac¬ 
teria or of difference in the hostplant. I notice in the lists the 
Sphasropsis malorum, known in the United States as the per¬ 
nicious New York apple canker. It is not yet known as a canker 
producing parasite here, but we must have a look out for it. If 
the fungus occurs here the strain of fungus does not seem to be 
virulent. 
As already mentioned, I cannot find any severe diseases among 
these lists. The modern methods of control minimize the danger 
of transmitting parasites. 
But we know that American scientists think it possible that 
a harmless bacterum of fungus from here may prove fatal to 
them and we know that Europe runs the same risks. 
There is a slight chance, but if the world accepts this thesis, 
we shall look in future upon an impossible kind of life. Think 
of men treated in the same way as plants, make the same sugges¬ 
tion about men’s parasites! 
We can imagine passengers descending from mailships, with 
colds; these “colds” vacilli may change in the different climate 
into pernicious pneumonia bacilli and become noxious to our 
people. But not only coughing passengers carry the cause of 
disease, but apparently healthy people may. This is specially 
the case with those people known as typhoid carriers, who walk 
about with a laughing healthy face, but who are laden with 
germs of a pest. Hysterical fear would have these people killed. 
Measures against man’s diseases are not so rigorous, but the 
measures against all possible and impossible plant diseases get 
sharper and sharper. By reasonable quarantine, man’s epidemics 
are well kept in check. 
The immigration of man has never been prohibited on account 
of diseases which he is not suffering from, but which he might 
carry. 
With international understandings on inspection, disinfections 
and fumigations, the exchanging and transportation of horticul¬ 
tural and agricultural products should continue with a certain 
amount of supervision but not crippled by too severe rules. 
The certificates of pathologists should be recognized in the 
same way as those of human doctors. 
The interchanging of plants should not be prohibited but only 
controlled. Prohibition is always a sign of weakness. 
It is only on this base that a healthy development of horticul¬ 
ture and agriculture may flourish. Competition is a necessary 
factor for the advancement of the world and this will not take 
place if the present stringent conditions are insisted upon. 
I will finish this address by expressing the hope that this 
congress will be able to influence the making and unmaking of 
the conditions with respect to interchange of plants. 
(Bond van Platonhandclaren S. Mr. W. E. WERY.) 
Mr. H. V. Taylor said he wished to thank Prof. Dr. Johanna 
Westerdijk for the most excellent address which she had given 
to the congress. In the course of it she laid great stress upon 
the need of all countries continuing to be allowed to send plants 
and other horticultural products to America under the provision 
that such should be accompanied by health certificate. If they 
traced the history of the American regulation they would find 
that in 1912 the Americans were quite convinced that sufficient 
safeguards were taken against most of the diseases if the plants 
were accompanied by a certificate of health. But now the 
American authorities say they have no faith in that system. 
Since 1912 they had had the plants entering their country ex¬ 
amined. Shipments from Holland, Belgium, France and England 
had been intercepted and the consignments (?) examined. In 
the case of English shipments 154 shipments had been inter¬ 
cepted, and these disclosed 63 different species of insects and 
fungi. In consequence of these discoveries the Federal Board 
has declared that the health certificates are of no value for the 
purpose. That seemed at the first to be a rather reasonable argu¬ 
ment. It was so until they searched into the question a little 
further. So far as England was concerned, we had gone into the 
matter a little closer and found that they had intercepted ship¬ 
ments revealing pests which had little connection at all with the 
plants. Such for example as the common housefly. The Ameri¬ 
cans also reported San Jose Scale; this pest had never occured 
in England. If it had got on these plants it must have got on 
after landing in America. One other pest was intercepted, Jap. 
Scale, on some Japanese trees. The plants in question were cer¬ 
tainly sent from England, but it was also a fact that they had 
previously come from America to an English nurseryman, and 
trans-shipped back to that country; that was how the pest had 
been intercepted. 
When the congress listened to the long lists of pests mentioned 
by Prof. Westerdijk which America had and which were not found 
in Europe, congress must have been deeply convinced that the 
risks which America ran from our pests was not so great as it 
was in our case. If you go through that list of the pests which 
America has and we have not, the only view which we can hold 
is a rather gloomy one. The interchange of plants between one 
country and another has grown up with civilization, and while it 
entails risks, the balance is on the side of advantage. Mr. Taylor 
urged that all their efforts throughout the whole world should be 
directed with a view to keeping that trade of interchange of horti¬ 
cultural products going rather than erecting unnatural economic 
barriers to stop it. The latter method would be a retrograde step. 
Orlando Harrison, State Senator, head of the Har¬ 
rison nurseries and extensive fruit growers, Berlin, Md., 
said yesterday the fruit of Delaware and the Eastern 
Shore of Maryland had been only slightly damaged by 
the late frosts. This statement followed a survey which 
Senator Harrison has made of the orchards and farms 
in control of his corporation. 
At Easton, Md., early and late apples and peaches will 
yield an hundred per cent. At Hurlock, Md., where the 
firm has 300 acres in fruit, the yield will be 90 per cent. 
At Seaford, Del., where there are 225 acres in fruit, the 
yield of early and winter apples will be 75 per cent. At 
Berlin, Md., with 1,000 acres in peach and apple trees, a 
yield of 90 per cent, is expected in peaches, 100 per cent, 
in early apples and 75 per cent, in winter apples. 
From the Berlin orchards Mr. Harrison is expecting 
300 carloads of peaches alone. There are 40,000 apple 
trees there and 60,000 peach trees. 
The strawberry crop about Berlin is estimated at one- 
third of a crop. Strawberries in some sections of Kent 
county suffered damage to some extent, but a big late 
crop is looked for. Grapes, while slightly harmed, have 
not been seriously affected. 
FREIGHT AND EXPRESS CHARGES 
In a recent presentment to the Interstate Commerce 
Commission regarding the present excessive freight and 
express rates on nursery and plant material, Frederick 
W. Kelsey, President of the F. W. Kelsey Nursery Com¬ 
pany, New York, summarized the question in the fol¬ 
lowing points: 
1. Nursery products are like farm products, culti¬ 
vated and produced directly from the soil and for wide 
dissemination and public use including both fruits and 
what is more commonly known as ornamental stock. 
2. Labor conditions during and since the war and 
the added burdens of taxation have made the production 
of nursery stock even at the pre-war rates for transpor¬ 
tation an extremely trying and in many cases a hazard¬ 
ous undertaking. 
3. The present excessive and in many instances ex- 
