252 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
tion bill which is workable, and which would properly safe¬ 
guard the plant interests of the country. Owing to the un¬ 
fortunate attitude of the Bureau of Entomology, the nursery¬ 
men of the country do not feel themselves able to place under 
its control the entire import business of the country by giving 
the Bureau authority to quarantine summarily, at will and 
without recourse, any shipment, or any foreign or domestic 
district or region. It would appear that this condition might 
have been avoided, had due effort been made by the 
Washington authorities to meet the nurserymen and squarely 
and frankly discuss the situation in all its bearings. 
INTERSTATE LEGISLATION 
Considerable discussion arose upon the subject of testing 
state laws which, on account of their arbitrary and drastic 
character, raised the question of their constitutionality. It 
was resolved that the executive committee be authorized to 
appropriate such sum or sums as may be necessary to test 
certain of these arbitrary 
state laws. Among these 
were the laws of Wyoming, 
Colorado and Montana. 
Probably other states will 
be included. 
ROOT GALL COMMITTEE 
E. A. Smith, Chairman 
Another interesting re¬ 
port was presented by 
Chairman Smith represent¬ 
ing this committee. It will 
be remembered that the re¬ 
port of Mr. Smith, who is 
secretary of the Jewell Nur¬ 
sery Co., of Lake City, 
Minn., presented at the 
Denver meeting, was a notable review of our knowledge of 
this subject. In the report presented at St. Louis, he called 
attention to the bulletin issued by Dr. Erwin F. Smith, of the 
Department of Agriculture at Washington, in which bac¬ 
teria are credited with being the cause of root galls of apple, 
peach, rose, raspberry and many other plants. Mr. Smith 
recommended making a test case of the Reed shipment 
into Colorado, with a view of ascertaining the constitution¬ 
ality of the inspector’s action in destroying this carload of 
stock, on the score that part of it was infested with crown gall. 
Mr. Smith further suggested that a broad series of experi¬ 
ments should be established on the home grounds of nursery¬ 
men and between the nurserymen and the state officials 
qualified and authorized to study it cooperatively. It was 
pointed out that no one experiment could settle this question, 
but that it could only be settled and settled satisfactorily in 
terms of broad averages. These averages could only be 
obtained through the general interest of nurserymen in the 
subject. If several nurserymen in each state would agree to 
make a test of crown gall trees by setting out a small tract to 
infested trees, as Mr. Abner Hoopes, Mr. Youngers, Mr. 
Smith of Minnesota, and Mr. Stuart of New York have done. 
we would in a short time secure a large mass of information 
which must be regarded as conclusive. 
PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS 
These were largely crowded into Friday morning’s session. 
Most of them had the virtue of brevity, and nearly all 
were very much to the point. Professor Hunter of Kansas 
presented a strong plea for closer co-operation between the 
entomologists and the nurserymen. He pointed out that 
they were mutually interdependent, and therefore, should 
work together. 
Professor Whitten,of Missouri gave the results of several 
years’ experiments in fall and spring planting. His general 
conclusions were that the farther north one goes, the more 
should we depend upon spring as the best time for planting, 
and vice versa. Again, the hardier the plant, the more likely 
was it to succeed if planted in the fall. As to time of fall 
planting, he advised early instead of late planting, as giving 
best results. 
A feature of the conven¬ 
tion was the number of 
papers on practical topics 
such as grades and grading, 
mailing lists, trade lists, and 
so forth. These will be 
presented in early issues of 
The National Nursery¬ 
man. 
EXHIBITS 
The exhibits as a whole 
were considerably smaller 
than in previous years. It 
is hard to say why they 
should have fallen off; for 
there was an excellent, op¬ 
portunity of displaying them, and St. Louis was sufficiently 
central so that they could be shipped with relatively small 
expense. The catalogue and lithograph firms were well repre¬ 
sented, and made notable displays, but the nursery products 
themselves were scanty. The following exhibits were worthy 
of note: 
St. Louis Cordage MiUs, a full line of sisal products, including tying 
material in various sizes. 
Jackson & Perkins, Newark, N. Y., specimens of ornamental trees, 
shade trees, fruit trees, and small fruits. 
J. G. Harrison & Sons, Berlin, Md., a good display of conifers, privets 
and shrubs. 
Rochester Lithographing Co., a first rate display of book plates and 
photographs. 
D. Hill, Dundee, Ill., our noted evergreen specialist, showed a fine 
collection of balled conifers. 
The Stecher Lithographing Co., Rochester, N. Y., collection of 
plates and order books. 
Perfection Manufacturing Co., Detroit, Mich., full line of pot and 
tree labels. 
The Fruit .Grower Co., St. Jo, Mo., a line of catalogues and guide 
books for the amateur fruit grower. 
Alien-Bailey Co., Dansville, N. Y., garden stakes, tree labels, and pot 
labels in variety. 
Lewis Roesch Hon. Norman J. Coleman Frank Weber E. G. Hill 
A DISTINGUISHED QUARTETTE 
