THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
90 
PROPAGATING GREENHOUSES FOR THE BUREAU 
OF PLANT INDUSTRY 
On February 20th, the Chairman of the Board of 
Awards, Department of Agriculture, received bids for 
the erection, at Bell Station, Maryland, fifteen miles from 
Washington, one head house, four greenhouses, three 
cottages, and one implement house. These buildinge are 
to be used in connection with a Plant Detention Station at 
Bell Station. 
Dr. Galloway, in answer to an enquiry as to what uses 
were to be made of these buildings, sends the following 
letter. 
February 16. 1920. 
Editor National Nurseryman, 
Flourtown, Pennsylvania. 
Dear Sir:— 
I am glad to get your kind letter of recent date, regard¬ 
ing our proposed new plant station at Bell Station, Mary¬ 
land. 
This station is designed primarily for the use of the Of¬ 
fice of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. As you 
probably know, the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant In¬ 
troduction has several field stations where it grows, tests, 
propagates, and distributes the numerous seeds and 
plants it brings in from all over the world. One of our 
oldest and most extensive stations is at Chico, California. 
We have about 230 acres in use at this station and are 
well prepared for any kind of propagating work. I wish 
you could visit this station sometime, as we have a lot of 
work going on there that is beginning to show now. I 
refer more especially to work on stocks. Pear, plum, 
cherry, peach, rose, and related stocks have been under 
investigation there for a number of years. For the past 
twelve years we have maintained a station near Rock¬ 
ville, Maryland, about fifteen miles from Washington. 
The soil at this station is not entirely satisfactory. Other 
conditions there, furthermore, are not altogether favor¬ 
able. The restrictions of the Federal Horticultural Board 
apply to our importations as well as those of commercial 
florists and nurserymen. If anything, our material is 
more rigidly inspected and scrutinized than the usual 
commercial shipments. The station at Bell is designed to 
take care of all those valuable things which the office is 
bringing in and which can not be immediately released. 
For example, just at the present time we are receiving 
many valuable seeds and plants from one of our explor¬ 
ers, Mr. Wilson Popenoe, in Guatemala, and an¬ 
other, Doctor H. S. Shantz, who is traveling in 
Africa. Mr. Popenoe is making a special 
effort to secure new and promising avocados for 
this country. These, of course, must all be handled 
under glass. We have very much felt the need of some 
place near Washington where all these valuable things 
could be assembled, studied, and propagated. We are 
fortunate at Bell in being very close to Dr. W. Van Fleet 
who has for a number of years conducted a little station 
there and has done some most valuable work on roses, 
chestnuts, and other plants along breeding lines. Mr. 
Darrow, another member of the Bureau of Plant Indus¬ 
try especially interested in breeding small fruits, is also 
located near Bell, so that we expect to have quite a little 
colony of workers there. 
Under the procedure under which the Federal Horti¬ 
cultural Board is now working with respect to imported 
commercial nursery stock, all the material coming in 
under what is known as open permits enters as it has 
always come in at the ports of entry and is then sent di¬ 
rectly to the nurserymen and others who may have or¬ 
dered same. The Board, so far as I am aware, is not con¬ 
templating the detention of any commercial stock, as un¬ 
der the regulations such stock if clean must be imme¬ 
diately passed out to the owner. The method of inspec¬ 
tion, therefore, becomes one of proper handling and care 
while the stock is being examined. Up to this time all 
stock that has entered here under Quarantine No. 37 has 
been very promptly handled and reshipped to the owner. 
Nothing has been held here more than a few hours, ex¬ 
cept and unless there was some defect in the permit, such 
as the applicant not properly taking care of his bond. In 
one or two such instances there has been a delay of a 
few days. I find in looking up the records that about two 
hundred special permits have been issued by the Federal 
Horticultural Board under Quarantine No. 37. These 
special permits, of course, are for material that may not 
be entered upder what is called open permits. All such 
things as lily bulbs, lily of the valley, narcissus, hy¬ 
acinths, tulips, and crocus; stocks, cuttings, scions, and 
buds of fruits for propagating purposes; rose stocks for 
propagation, including Manetti, Multiflora, Brier Rose, 
and Rosa rugosa; nuts, including palm seeds, for pro¬ 
pagation; and seeds of fruit, forest, ornamental and 
shade trees, seeds of deciduous and evergreen ornamen¬ 
tal shrubs, and seeds of hardy perennial plants, may 
come in without these special permits. About one-fourth 
of the material for which special permits have been is¬ 
sued has already arrived and has been inspected and 
passed out to the owners. Nothing, so far as we are 
aware, has been held or delayed here. 
Reverting again to the question of stocks, we have 
been interested in this subject for a number of years. 
The Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction has 
assembled a good store of very valuable material which 
is now ready for careful study and test. 
We want to open up a line of effort that will point the 
way to securing better stocks for our apples, peaches, 
cherries, plums, pears, and roses, and the more common 
ones now in use. There is a large field here for study. 
We have made a good many experiments with the pear 
and now have some very promising things. One of the 
most important phases of the problem will be the devel¬ 
opment of home supplies of seeds and propagating ma¬ 
terial. With kindest regards, I am 
Very truly yours, 
B. Galloway, Plant Pathologist. 
TRADE ACCEPTANCES 
Mr. Henry Moon at the Convention of the National As¬ 
sociation advocates the use of Trade Acceptance. The 
Commerce reports of February 2nd made a statement 
that a booklet entitled “Trade Acceptance, what they 
are and how they are used” by Robert G. Freman, for¬ 
mer Deputy Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of 
New York and published by the American Acceptance 
Council, 111 Broadway, N. Y. Copies will be mailed free 
upon application to the Council. 
