138 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
stock. Of course the corn-belt States must guard their 
staple crop, but if an official bulletin, under date of De¬ 
cember 12th, 1919 says 
“the corn-borer probably will be single-brooded 
throughout the northern area of corn-production, 
and as a single-broded insect its damage to corn is 
absolutely negligible” 
why is it necessary that Quarantines by these States 
should be issued? 
The result is that while broom corn, upon which this 
pest was introduced, continues to be admitted into the 
United States, and most nursery stock is not, the nur¬ 
series of New England and New York have ruthlessly 
been denied the market for their products which they 
have been accustomed to enjoy in these mid-western 
States. Further, the publicity given the pest and the 
Quarantines has prejudiced buyers in other States 
against nursery stock from corn-borer areas, yet the 
stock that nurseries so located sell is rigidly guarded and 
inspected, so that the possibility of disseminating the 
corn-borer on plants thus grown and shipped is so re¬ 
mote as to be negligible. 
Pine Leaf Blister Rust is the pest that in some quarters 
caused alarm for the safety of the White Pine timber. 
Forestry planting had been encouraged, especially of very 
young White Pine, so nurserymen were growing the tree 
extensively. Currant and Gooseberry plants were found 
to harbor the pest at one stage of its life cycle. Alarm 
spread, and a whole brood of Quarantines followed that 
shut the door of one State against another to the admis¬ 
sion of what are termed “five needled Pines,” and to 
Gooseberry and Currant bushes. 
Nurseries well stocked with White Pine, grown to per¬ 
petuate America’s forests and to continue these noble 
trees in our landscapes, found their product denied a 
market. With inter-state shipments of five-needled 
Pines prohibited, the intra-state shipments declined as 
well, for publicity had “tabooed the most generally useful 
of timbers.” Think of what it means to future genera¬ 
tions for this generation to practically cease perpetuating 
White Pine. 1 i ^ 
From the “Pine Leaf Blister Rust” Quarantines alone, 
nurseries free of the pest, and with no out-breaks of it 
anywhere near them, suffered losses approximating one 
million dollars. One nursery, specializing in trees for 
re-forestation reports a loss of $100,000 and two other 
firms doing a business in lawn trees claim to have suffer¬ 
ed from the same cause losses totaling $40,000.1 fear that 
in view of the huge figures to which the public is accus¬ 
tomed these losses of ours may appear trifling, but let me 
assure you that in the nursery industry they are stagger¬ 
ing, and to some would mean financial ruin. 
I might cite other instances of Quarantines, effecting 
the nursery industry, for they are numerous. There is 
no section of the United States free from them, and new 
additional ones aimed at the control of this or that pest 
are constantly threatening. The two that I have outlined 
are, in their operation and effect, examples of the rest. 
If, after experience with such quarantines, they had 
been found generally effectual as a means of pest control, 
there might be reason for a continuance of the policy. 
Then, too, if a Quarantine meant only a temporary embar¬ 
go, while remedial measures were being applied to de¬ 
stroy a pest or check a disease, horticulturists would no 
doubt suffer the inconvenience without protest, but with 
many Quarantines ineffectual and apparently of perma¬ 
nent nature, and so inclusive as to embrace nursery stock 
that is not, and never has been infested with the pest or 
disease covered by the Quarantine, nurserymen, and 
many others, are alarmed at the arrested position of the 
industry. 
Millions of dollars of additional capital are required 
now in the nursery industry of America to produce in 
adequate supply here the plant materials that have for¬ 
merly come in from Abroad. A year has already elapsed 
since “General Quarantine Order No. 37” was announced, 
and yet only a relatively few thousands of dollars have 
been invested to grow the plants in America that the Act 
excludes from foreign shores. The reason is found in 
the fact that an investor requires to know in advance that 
there shall be a market for his products, once they have 
been produced. Capital has not this assurance in the nur¬ 
sery business. How can it have, in view of the epidemic 
of Quarantines that shackle it now and threaten to stifle 
it even more? The importance of producing additional 
plant life at the same time we are protecting that which 
exists, I am sure is appreciated. In such a crisis what 
then is the remedy? Not wholesale condemnation of en¬ 
tomologists and plant pathologists, as some might expect 
me to urge; not complete relinquishment of pest control; 
not even the substitution of a policy that nurserymen 
might suggest, for it would be subject to the same criti¬ 
cism of bias that the present policy of the scientists is 
subject to. 
The necessity for remedial measures is urgent, and the 
reldase of the nursery industry from its shackles of such 
vital national importance, that an inclusive conference of 
representatives of all the interests concerned should be 
called together by the Secretary of Agriculture, to pro¬ 
pose to Congress legislation that, if enacted, would not 
only safeguard plant life from wanton destruction by pest 
or disease, but at the same time assure to nurserymen and 
horticulturists generally the freedom to sell their pro¬ 
ducts in the market of every State in the Union. 
KEEP THE U. S. D. OF A. EFFICIENT 
Agriculture and Horticulture are so fundamental to the 
welfare of the country in fact to our very existence that 
a stingy cheese paring policy towards the United States 
Department of Agriculture will serve to react to the great 
disadvantage of the country. 
It would be far better to restrict appropriations in al¬ 
most any of the government departments rather than that 
of Agriculture. 
The most is not too much and the best is not too good 
for a department that, in the words of Secretary Meredith, 
makes a profit of several times 1000 per cent for the 
people of the United States. While perhaps the Secre¬ 
tary is appropriating all the percentages in sight, the 
work the Department is doing is invaluable and yearly 
becomes more so. 
The people of the country should demand and be will¬ 
ing to pay for the very highest degree of efficiency in all 
that pertains to the development of its agriculture and 
