286 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
suited in more or less inferior stuff finding its way to the 
orchards. Duly appreciating the pioneer work done in 
this direction by the Department of Agriculture with cit¬ 
rus fruits, the fact was nevertheless brought home to the 
plantsmen that the greatest service they could render 
California fruit culture and their own industry was to 
formulate a practical working plan whereby the buds 
used in the propagation of nursery trees and vines should 
come from recognized types that would regularly pro¬ 
duce a uniform quality and quantity of product. These 
types, the plantsmen decided, should be selected by ex¬ 
perts regularly employed by their organization and the 
buds cut therefrom under scientific direction. 
In its somewhat nebulous original form many nur¬ 
serymen favored the idea, hut for want of initiative and 
continuity of purpose, it never became a tangible fact 
until William T. Kirkman, Jr., of Fresno agitated for it 
by calling the attention of nurserymen and orchardists 
to its vital importance. At the Nurserymen’s convention, 
held in conjunction with the State Fruit Growers’ meet¬ 
ing at Chico last fall, the matter finally assumed con¬ 
crete form and the Nurserymen’s Bud Selection Associa¬ 
tion was perfected. This was not only heartily supported 
by the craft, but was enthusiastically indorsed by the 
fruit growers there assembled in convention at the same 
time. 
Nursery Fruit Tree Standardization 
In its last analysis bud selection under the plans be¬ 
ing considered simply means that the nursery interests 
of California propose to standardize nursery fruit trees 
so that the product of their stock will more closely cor¬ 
respond to standard requirements of fruit growers and 
the demands of the market. With the advancing years 
fruit growing is more and more becoming an exacting 
vocation calling for large capital and intensive methods. 
To realize its widest possibilities the best trees that time, 
labor and money can produce, must be supplied by the 
nurserymen. Appreciating this, it is indeed pleasant to 
record that nearly all the larger nursery establishments 
of the state are in the new organization, hence it is cer¬ 
tainly in evidence that the nursery industry is keenly 
alive to its responsibilities in the development of our 
fruit interests and is now thoroughly in line for the 
growing of a superior quality of trees and that the spec¬ 
ulative element will be reduced to the vanishing point. 
The California Nurserymen’s Bud Selection Associa¬ 
tion is a regularly incorpated body under the laws of 
California, with a capital stock of $150,000, of which 
sum over $50,000 has been subscribed. The officers se¬ 
lected for the first year are: president, William T. Kirk¬ 
man, Jr., Fresno; vice-president, J. E. Bergtholdt, New¬ 
castle; secretary-treasurer, Max J. Crow, Gilroy; direc¬ 
tors, John S. Armstrong, Ontario; Henry A. Hyde, Wat¬ 
sonville; J. W. Barnicott, Newcastle, and George C. Roed- 
ing, Fresno. Headquarters for the present have been es¬ 
tablished at San Jose. 
While the individual units composing the organization 
anticipate a material return from its operations, chiefly 
I i'om the I act that its success will enable nurserymen to 
standardise their product, the organization itself is a co¬ 
operative non-profit sharing enterprise; its principal and 
only aim will be to improve the fruit tree of the future; 
to elevate the fruit industry to reduce the element of 
chance in tree planting; to eliminate the unprofitable; to 
enhance quality and increase bearing; to avoid undesir¬ 
able varieties; these are considerations that appeal alike 
to the fruit tree planter, the fruit shipper, the fruit can- 
ner, and the ultimate consumer. On the basis of service 
that serves, by affording trees that will yield better pro¬ 
fits, increase production and improve quality, the Bud 
Selection Association asks consideration and hopes to 
receive the support of every horticultural interest. 
AN APPEAL TO EVERY FRIEND OF AMERICAN 
HORTICULTURE 
A Preliminary Report by the Executive Committee 
appointed at a Conference of representatives of 
Horticultural and other societies, held June 15, 
1920, in the American Museum of Natural 
History, New York City. 
On August 20, 1912, the Congress of the United States 
enacted a law entitled “An Act to regulate the importa¬ 
tion of nursery stock and other plants and plant pro¬ 
ducts, to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to estab¬ 
lish and maintain quarantine districts for plant diseases 
and insect pests, to permit and regulate the movement of 
fruit, plants, and vegetables therefrom, and for other 
purposes.” 
Under the provisions of this law the Secretary of Ag¬ 
riculture, at the request of the Federal Horticultural 
Board, issued, in 1918, Quarantine Order No. 37, which, 
after due notice and hearings, became effective on June 
1, 1919. 
Designed for the admirable purpose of protecting the 
United States against the admission of additional in¬ 
sects and diseases injurious to plant-life, the regulations 
promulgated from time to time under the quarantine 
have in effect acted as an embargo, preventing the im¬ 
portation of any plants or seeds except those permitted 
by narrow and seemingly arbitrary rulings. Further, 
permits to import under these regulations have been 
granted or refused in such fashion as to make the Fed¬ 
eral Horticultural Board the controller of horticultural 
research and commerce in a way hard to square with the 
necessities of an adequate quarantine. 
Under these regulations all importations of plant material, 
whether received at Boston or New Orleans or New York or San 
Francisco, must first go to Washington for examination and 
fumigation, being then forwarded to the consignee at his ex¬ 
pense; and the delays incident to this procedure and the treat¬ 
ment to which the plants are subjected, have in some cases in¬ 
jured them and completely killed them. 
While it is true that the Federal Horticultural Board theore¬ 
tically will issue a permit to anyone for the importation of 
plants he may desire, it is also sadly true that in certain cases 
either such permits have been arbitrarily denied or so long de¬ 
layed that the opportunity has passed. It is also a fact that the 
requirement of a bond to follow the importations for two years 
operates as an effective embargo to plant importation by ama¬ 
teurs. 
The offical acting for the Federal Horticultural Board deter¬ 
mines the quantity of any plant which in his wisdom it is proper 
to admit for propagation purposes, and there seems to be no 
logical basis for his determination. 
Few realize that the present quarantine was issued af¬ 
ter the Bureau of Plant Industry, on February 26, 1918, 
had submitted to the Department of Agriculture a report 
in which it was stated that in order to protect the coun¬ 
try against dangerous plant pests and diseases “the time 
