544 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
The visitor is very much impressed with 
the amount of work in progress and the 
small amount of space available for carry¬ 
ing it on. 
HANDLING THE CASES 
Holland American Line Dock, Hoboken, N. J., showing Interior 
with Hundreds of Cases of Plants which arrived 
per Ss. Ryndam. 
In order to economize space, the plant 
cases which are usually oblong in form, 
varying from 5 to 15 or more feet in length, 
and having ends which are approximately 
9 feet square, are placed on end. When 
these are handled, owing to their great 
weight they require the combined efforts of 
from four to eight men to place them upon 
trucks for removal from the docks. To 
illustrate the amount of floor space re¬ 
quired we may sight the condition follow¬ 
ing the arrival of the S. S. Sommalsdyk 
which reached New York on March the 15th, 
carrying 1720 cases of trees and plants. 
It is estimated that these, cases when stand¬ 
ing on end on the floor occupied some 15,480 
square feet. During the height of the sea¬ 
son five or six steamers may arrive each 
week carrying from 1500 to 2000 cases. 
These would approximate about 9,000,000 
PASSING THE CUSTOMS. pounds in weight and when stored in the minimum amount 
The method of passing the Customs is orderly and of space which they would occupy, would require 81,000 
systematic. The duty of the importer is first to make square feet of floor space, 
entry in the Custom House and pay the duty on the basis 
of the invoice. This secures him a permit certifying to DOCK INSPECTION IMPOSSIBLE 
the payment of the duty. He then takes the permit to the In order to show how impracticable dock inspection 
Custom House Inspector on the dock. At the same time would be, we have simply to realize the space required were 
the Custom House officials send the invoice 
to the Appraisers Stores where an examina- 
ation slip is issued and passed to the examin¬ 
ing officer. This provides for an examina¬ 
tion of a sufficient number of sample cases 
to satisfy Customs requirements. The 
examining officer takes care to compare 
the slip with the invoice of the goods and 
uses this as the basis of his examination of 
the stock itself. If it conforms in specifi¬ 
cations to the invoice the permit is signed 
by the examiner and the shipment is 
released to the importer. 
Shipments come under different numbers 
and marks. In the unloading of these, and 
owing to lack of space, it is impossible 
to group them under the receiver’s marks, 
so that the clearing house clerk must 
assemble his cases, and in doing this may 
find them in .various places on the dock. 
After collecting them and arranging for 
their transfer to their various destinations, 
the cases are all carefully checked up before 
they are passed over to the next transport¬ 
ing agency. All this takes time and con¬ 
sumes much space. 
Holland American Line Dock. Interior View showing other 
Enormous Quantities of Cases of Plants that arrived 
per Ss. Ryndam, March 17, 1910. This steamer 
carried over 2000 packages of plants. 
