THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
93 
forth?' We know cases where a local hailstorm destroyed the 
nurserymen’s crops for at least two years; not only destroyed 
his revenue, but added one hundred per cent, to the cost of 
development and maintenance. 
What about depreciation of plant? Horses, mules, 
implements, machinery in general, wear out. What about 
selling expenses? The office does not maintain itself, and 
catalogues are not furnished free by philanthropic printers, 
and salesmen are not missionaries who live on starvation 
salaries. 
The above are some of the contingencies which are usually 
forgotten in figuring cost of production. The nurseryman 
may hit it one year; the next year the tables are turned, and 
he is the one who gets hit. 
The manufacturer figures cost of production, adds as much 
more for contingencies or overhead charges, and then adds 
his profit. The nurseryman who is going to make more than 
a mere living, and expects to stay in the game, must do some¬ 
thing of the same sort. We believe the proper principle and 
motto to keep before the nurseryman’s eye is to grow good 
stock, deliver it in good condition, charge a good price, and 
then make the purchaser responsible for handling that stock 
after it reaches him. 
The Committee on Legislation, of wffiich 
THE FEDERAL Mr. William Pitkin is chairman, ap- 
INSPECTION pointed and fully authorized by the 
BILL Association at its last annual meeting in 
St. Louis to consummate such a bill as in 
its judgment was wise, has been working consistently and 
vigorously with the U. S. Department officials for sometime 
in the effort to adjust the provisions of the bill to meet the 
trade requirements of the nurserymen and the legislative 
wishes of the Department officials. It is possible that the 
bill may become a law before another issue of this journal 
appears. The main point of difference between the two par¬ 
ties to this legislative agreement is connected with the admin¬ 
istration of quarantine or rather restrictive legislation to 
domestic insects and diseases. This journal has frequently 
placed itself on record as favoring legislation aimed to pro¬ 
hibit the importation of plant enemies. The foreign features 
of this bill are satisfactory to the nurserymen, but the regula¬ 
tion of the domestic features is questionable. The fact that 
the bill provides for quarantine against insect or disease new 
or not widely distributed leaves the matter in such indefinite 
shape as to allow each case to be an open one, and to be 
arbitrarily passed upon by the federal horticultural commis¬ 
sion. 
It may sound somewhat heretical from our standpoint to 
raise the question of the efficiency of legislative enactments in 
the control of injurious insects and plant diseases, but it is 
worth while asking, is there any case on record in which in the 
United States an injurious insect or a plant disease has been 
controlled by measures provided under legislative enactment ? 
If so, what are the instances? We recall that San Jose scale 
has been legislated against by almost every state in the Union, 
and that all sorts of prohibitive regulations are in force. Is it 
not a fact that San Jose scale is found at the present time in 
practically every state in the Union where the climate will 
permit it to grow? Is this condition not also true of most 
other scale insects which have been established in any one 
portion within our borders?' 
The codling moth was said a few years ago to be unknown 
in certain fruit districts of the Northwest. The best informa¬ 
tion we have is that it is now established in these districts 
despite prohibitive and drastic inspection laws. 
The fight against the chestnut bark disease and the gipsy 
and brown tail moths are also cases in ])oint. Unquestion¬ 
ably the rapidity of spread of these enemies will be somewhat 
restricted, but arc they not bound to cover the area where 
natural conditions will permit them to grow? 
In our judgment, the great value of such legislative 
enactments as have taken place lies in their educational 
influence, and not in their restrictive influence, and the point 
now arises whether education along the.se lines cannot be 
more cheaply dispensed in other ways. The fight against 
enemies has become an individual one, and it simply resolves 
itself into the condition that the nurseryman or fruit grower 
who does not fight these enemies will go to the wall or be put 
out of business. The man who fights them is the one who 
will and ought to survive. Let educational campaigns be 
conducted by all means so that plant and fruit growers may 
know what they have to fight and how they should meet the 
enemy. But in our judgment the battle now is up to the 
individual himself. Let the government keep out foreign 
enemies as they should have done in the past, but do not 
hamper trade by domestic restrictions which are without 
practical results, and only harass the leaders in horticultural 
work. 
Obituary 
WILLIAM SMITH, OF GENEVA, DEAD 
FOUNDER OF OBSERVATORY AND WILLIAM SMITH 
COLLEGE 
Geneva, Feb. 7.—The death of William vSmith, aged 94 
years, occurred last night at his residence on Castle Heights, 
after an illness of several weeks due to old age and a general 
breaking down. Mr. Smith was one of the leading nursery¬ 
men in this section and was Geneva’s philanthropist. 
For a half century he had been one of the leading business 
men of Geneva, while in his later years he became one of the 
city’s greatest benefactors, establishing the astronomical 
observatory that bears his name and founding William 
vSmith College for Women as a co-ordinated women’s depart¬ 
ment for Hobart College. Mr. Smith leaves only nephews 
and nieces. The funeral took place Friday afternoon from 
his late home. Rev. Langdon C. Stewardson, D.D., president 
of Hobart College officiating .—Geneva Times. 
The sad news. come.s to The Nation. 4 L Nurserym. 4 N of the death 
of Mrs. William C. Barry of Rochester. Besides her husband she 
leaves three sons and a daughter, all of Rochester. Mr. Barry’s many 
friends in the nursery trade will sympathize with him m his great loss. 
