42 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
How long this is going to last is problematical, yet, 
when one realizes that “lining out" stock in both fruit 
and ornamental, is by no means in “surplus,” in fact, is 
very scarce, it does not appear that there will be any sur¬ 
plus of stock for several years to come, for one must not 
forget that this country is just recovering from the effects 
of the war, that building is starting up again, and that 
there will be a constantly increasing demand. 
Unfortunately, nurserymen are prone to forget their 
experience of the past and no doubt they will increase 
their planting unreasonably so that some day we will 
again see six and eight cent shrubs, four cent peaches, 
etc. But it does look now as though this may not hap¬ 
pen for three or four years. Shortage of young stock and 
scarcity and high cost of labor will go a long way to 
holding down surpluses. 
The question of common labor for the nurseryman, as 
well as the farmer, has reached a serious point and is one 
of the factors which will prevent very great increases in 
nursery stock. Common labor is something the nursery¬ 
man must have. The conception of the “planter and fir¬ 
mer” was a great inspiration and has assisted very 
materially in reducing the cost of planting young stock 
in the nursery. The “tree digger” was another tool which 
reduced the cost of digging but practically aside from 
these two tools there has been nothing invented for nur¬ 
serymen to take the place of common labor. With the ex¬ 
tensive public and private improvements going on 
through the country, there is not enough common labor to 
go around and as usual, the nurseryman gets the short 
end of the stick. 
There is a feeling of satisfaction in the knowledge that 
some of our public officials are beginning to realize that 
the farmer cannot produce large crops or work his farm 
to capacity unless something is done to relieve the com¬ 
mon labor situation. President Harding proposes to send 
a message to Congress inviting them to amend the immi¬ 
gration regulations to allow the admission of properly 
qualified workers who are needed in the United States. 
He proposes that the number of Italian emigrants per¬ 
mitted annually to enter the United States should be in¬ 
creased to 100.000. The present quota now under the 
Immigration Act is 42.057. 
It is well known that large numbers of Italians return 
to Italy in the early winter with the expectation of com¬ 
ing back to the United States in the Spring but it must be 
borne in mind that these Italians who leave the United 
States are counted in the quota permitted to return to the 
country the following Spring. Consequently, if say 35.- 
000 returned to Italy in the fall, that 35.000 when thev 
return in the spring are counted against the 42.000 which 
are permitted to enter. In other words, if 35.000 go back 
to Italy in the Fall and return in the Spring, the actual 
increase in Italian immigration the following year would 
be but 7000. And the same applies to immigration from 
other countries. 
It is sincerely hoped, not only for the good of the nur¬ 
serymen and farmers, but others who have to employ 
common labor, that some steps will be taken to modify 
present immigration laws along these lines. 100,000 
Italians coming in this country every year would not be 
labor leaders are making a great outcry against this pro¬ 
posed increase in immigration. They are too short-sight¬ 
ed to see that unless we have ample common labor the 
country cannot progress as it should. 
Let us hope that the President and Congress may see 
the light and that we may before long be relieved of a 
law which is certainly hampering the work of the farm¬ 
er, nurseryman, and the employer of common labor 
throughout the country. 
if 
It seems unfortunate that the Federal Horticultural 
Board cannot be induced to realize the ill effects to hor¬ 
ticulture in this country due to certain provisions in the 
functioning of Quarantine 37. As I said before there are 
a number of seedlings of plants which should be per¬ 
mitted entry into this country under the same regula¬ 
tions as fruit stocks and with no greater danger of bring¬ 
ing disease or insects than is the case with fruit stocks. 
There are a number of fine trees and shrubs which this 
country needs which are practically out of the market 
to-day for the reason that the small seedlings or rooted 
plants cannot or have not been produced in this country 
and on which, it seems, we are dependent upon Europe, 
trees and plants, by the way, for which there are no sub¬ 
stitutes. Take, for instance, the European Beech. I 
would be very glad if the F. H. B. would point out where 
we can procure, in this country, seedlings of this plant. 
There may be a few odd hundred here and there which 
in a big country like this don’t mean anything. The Eu¬ 
ropean Beech, as an individual specimen, has no substi¬ 
tute. As a hedge plant, for certain purposes, there is 
nothing that could be used in its place. The same applies 
to the European Hornbeam for either an individual speci¬ 
men or for hedging. For grafting Rivers Purple Beech, 
which we can do if we could get the European Beech 
seedlings, there is no satisfactory substitute and the same 
thing applies to many other trees and shrubs. 
With all the attempts that have been made, there have 
practically been no successful propagations of these 
seedlings here. If there have been I would be glad to 
have the F. IT. B. point out where they can be procured. 
I think I have some knowledge of the nursery production 
in this country but I confess that I don’t know where any 
of these plants can be had and the larger stock to-dav 
suitable for permanent planting is practically exhausted. 
It must be kept in mind that the reason why we cannot 
successfully produce some of these seedlings is due to the 
fact that the seeds must be planted immediately after the 
cron is gathered. Thev cannot be imported from Europe 
and kept throughout the winter for spring planting, but 
must be put in the ground immediately, the seed is ripe 
in the fall. We cannot procure these seeds in this coun- 
trv except by importing them and then they arrive here 
too late to be of any use. 
There seems to be no reason why the F. H. B. should 
not be willing to grant special permits for the importa¬ 
tion. under the same regulations as fruit stocks are im¬ 
ported. of some of these ornamental seedlings which up 
