306 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
well cleated in the box. It is a common cause of injury 
to plants to have the cleats break away when heavy ship¬ 
ping cases are up ended and few nurserymen but know 
what it means to have the plants break loose, the con¬ 
tents arrive in a jumbled mess that is nothing but an ex¬ 
pense. 
Since the advent of the automobile truck it is becoming 
more and more the method of delivery of nursery stock, 
if within a reasonable distance and the distance keeps on 
extending, because one handling is sufficient whereas 
loading in railroad cars or packing in cases entails so 
much work and number of times of handling. A truck 
well loaded with trees going along the road is a great ad¬ 
vertisement for a nurseryman. It generally attracts at¬ 
tention, everyone seems to be interested. If the plants are 
all nicely tied in, the roots well protected, it is a good 
advertisement, but if the reverse is true and the roots are 
exposed to the drying winds it is far better if the nur¬ 
seryman’s name is not on the truck. 
PLANTS UNDER SPECIAL PERMIT TO RE AD¬ 
MITTED WITHOUT WASHING 
But They Must Be Free From Adhering Particles 
of Sand, Soil, Earth or Peat 
Every nurseryman in the country who does any im¬ 
porting will be interested in knowing the outcome of the 
special hearing which was held in Washington on Tues¬ 
day, October 3. on the subject of plant importation under 
special permit. 
A great many nurserymen who have imported plants 
during the last two years under the requirement that the 
roots must be “washed free from sand, soil or earth” 
have reported a higher percentage of failures than they 
ever had before, even in cases where the plants seemed 
to be in good conditions when received. These losses 
have been very general. Even old firms who have been 
importating for twenty to forty years, have almost with¬ 
out exception had this same experience this year. The 
general feeling has been that these losses have been the 
direct result of the washing out of the roots of plants be¬ 
fore shipment from the other side. 
There were present at the hearing. Dr. Marlatt, Dr. 
Lumsden, Dr. Kellerman, Dr. Orton, Mr. Sasser. Dr. Oo- 
ville. Dr. Wm. A. Taylor, Chief of Bureau of Plant In¬ 
dustry; Mr. Wood. Mr. Anderson. Mr. Althouse, all of 
the Department of Agriculture, and Mr. .T. W. Hill, of 
DesMoines. Chairman of the Special Committee; Paul 
Lindley, President of the American Association of Nur¬ 
serymen; Harlan P. Kelsey, Vice-president of the Ameri¬ 
can Association of Nurserymen; F. E. Rockwell, Secre¬ 
tary of the Eastern Nurserymen’s Association; and 
Charles Perkins of .Taekson & Perkins. Nurserymen, rep¬ 
resenting the nurserymen. 
Mr. Hill stated the ease for the nurserymen, after 
which both Mr. Hill and Mr. Perkins submitted as evi¬ 
dence a volume of correspondence from old and well- 
known nurserymen all over the country, all of which 
tended to show that the results of washing had been very 
serious and, in many instances, disastrous. This corres¬ 
pondence included letters from such well-known firms 
as Bobbink & Atkins, Storrs & Harrison Company, Mr. 
Manda, Ilgenfritz’ Sons Company, Mr. Edward Welch, 
Maloney Brothers & Wells, Chase Brothers Company, 
Roster & Company, and more than a score of others. 
Mr. Hill emphasized the fact that the nurserymen 
of the country wanted to co-operate with the Federal 
Horticultural Board in every way possible, and that they 
approved the object of the Board in wanting to reduce to 
a minimum the danger of the possibility of introducing 
new insects and diseases on imported stock. He stated 
that the Committee felt, however, that stock could be 
brought into the country without having the roots wash¬ 
ed, but with the soil so thoroughly shaken out that no 
lumps or balls of soil would remain in the roots to make 
thorough inspection impossible. Dr. Coville of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, who is well-known to the nurserymen of the coun¬ 
try and who has had many years of experience with 
ericacious plants, stated that in his opinion, washing the 
soil from the roots of plants of this kind, was very dan¬ 
gerous, and generally proved fatal, even under green¬ 
house conditions where the plants could be given every 
care and kept under perfect control, after transplanting. 
Mr. Lumsden, who has visited many of the nurseries of 
the country where imported stock has been planted dur¬ 
ing the last year, told of a few shipments, especially of 
azaleas from Japan, where the imported stock had grown 
successfully, but stated that in the great majority of 
cases, the stock had been practically a failure after trans¬ 
planting, even where it was given every possible care. 
Mr. Lumsden for the Federal Horticultural Board, stated 
that in the instance of the azaleas mentioned, ( Azalea : 
Kurume) each individual plant, after washing, had ha d 
the roots wrapped in sphagnum moss and carefully 
bound in twine. There was no instance where rhodo¬ 
dendron stocks which had been washed, had given at all 
a satisfactory stand. In many cases forty to ninety per 
cent of them had been lost. 
There was considerable amount of discussion as to 
whether losses were the result of washing, or of care¬ 
less methods in exposing the roots to drying, and in 
packing the stock too wet, after it had been washed. 
Every member of the Nurserymens’ committee felt that 
the attitude of Ihe Board throughout the discussion was 
most fair and open-minded; and every member of the 
Board seemed anxious to do anything which could be 
done to help meet the practical problems which the nur¬ 
serymen have found themselves up against in connection 
with importing stock under the special permit arrange¬ 
ment. 
Dr. Marlatt explained at length that the reason why 
the Board had inserted the clause requiring washing the 
roots of plants, was not because the Board wished to 
make the ruling more stringent, but because exporters 
packing the plants in other countries apparantly could 
not be made to understand just what the words “free 
from sand, soil and earth” meant, and that the result has 
been not only a great deal of trouble for the Board, but 
also dissatisfaction on the part of importers when ship¬ 
ments were refused, because the roots of the plants had 
not been properly cleaned. This made it necessary for 
the Board to require “washing,” as that established a 
standard which could not be misunderstood. 
