6 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
November 23, 1920. 
Mr. .T .Horace McFarland, 
Chairman, Committee on Horticultural Quarantine, 
Harrisburg, Pa. 
Dear Mr. McFarland: 
I have read in The National Nurseryman 
the first report of your Committee on Quar¬ 
antine 37. This report is described as temperately 
worded and I find nothing in it which would indicate 
that the bounds of decorum and politeness have been 
passed in any way! I regret, however, to note that the 
report as a whole is so drawn as to convey to the public 
an impression which the facts do not warrant—the same 
sort of impression, in other words, that the opponents of 
the quarantine attempted to make widespread when the 
quarantine was first promulgated. At that time there 
was perhaps more justification, because the quarantine 
was not so well understood. Certainly there is no justi¬ 
fication at this time for statements which are misleading 
if not absolutely incorrect. 
To he more explicit, the argument as a whole conveys 
the idea that the special restrictions on entry, including 
the requirement of forwarding to Washington for inspec¬ 
tion, is of universal application. In point of fact, the 
restrictions objected to apply only to the plants imported 
under special permit under Regulation 14 and, as you 
know, do not apply to the great mass of plants imported, 
such as bulb and fruit stocks, rose stocks, etc., which this 
year, as well as in previous years, have constituted the 
hulk of foreign plant importations. Furthermore, no 
point is made of the fact which has been explained and 
is thoroughly understood, that the sending of this ma¬ 
terial to Washington is based simply on the poverty of 
the Department . The Board has been perfectly willing 
and has endeavored to get such support as would enable 
it to establish properly equipped and officered inspection 
establishments at the main ports of entry, and in fact 
funds for that purpose are now included in the estimates 
to be submitted to the next Congress. In other words, 
this difficulty, which is one of the principal points com¬ 
plained of, is not one of intention on the part of the 
Board, hut simply one of necessity due to the fact that 
funds have not been available to maintain such inspec¬ 
tion establishments and officers at several ports of entry. 
Our available funds have been utilized in maintaining 
one office and inspection force and until funds are avail¬ 
able for desirable extensions, this limitation must neces¬ 
sarily continue. 
The chief objection, however, to the report is the old 
argument which runs through it that the action of the 
Department under this quarantine is going to create a 
horticultural and floricultural desert in America and will 
prevent America from getting any plants not now avail¬ 
able in this country, or any of the new creations of for¬ 
eign origin. This idea is adroitly brought out in several 
places in this report, notably, for example, in the follow¬ 
ing paragraph: 
“It is confidently believed that those who are 
opposed to a Chinese Wall plant policy for 
America, who think that we are entitled to other 
plants which may be discovered anywhere as 
valuable to us as have been the Apple, the Lilac, 
the Potato, and countless other familiar but 
exotic plants in use today, will aid the work of 
this committee in contributions and in effort.” 
It is similarly brought out in the statements that bo¬ 
tanical gardens have “been either stopped or disastrously 
checked in so far as such operations (research) are de¬ 
pendent on plants obtained from beyond the borders of 
the United States.” These and similar statements are 
absolutely unjustified by the facts. 
To illustrate the liberal use made of the special permit 
for the importation of plants otherwise prohibited, the 
records of the Board show that no less than 311 such 
special permits were granted in the first year of the 
quarantine, ending June 30, last. The plants covered in 
these permits, including bulbs, ornamentals, roses, or¬ 
chids, herbaceous plants, etc., totaled 10,870,531. Im¬ 
portations of plants were actually made under 197 of 
these permits, representing total importations of 
2,093,753 plants. The discrepancy between the amounts 
authorized and the amounts actually imported may he 
explained by the fact that the permittees asked for the 
maximum amount which they felt they needed and in 
most cases they were not able to secure the amounts 
which they had requested, and a good many permits 
have been granted under which no importations have 
been made. For the portion of the second year which 
has already elapsed, namely, from July 1, 1920, to No¬ 
vember 20, 1920, 191 additional special permits have 
been issued authorizing the importation of 3,969,506 
plants. Under 51 of these permits importations have al¬ 
ready been made, totaling 415,392 plants. That does not 
look like “A Chinese wall plant policy for America.” 
Twenty permits have been requested and authorized 
for the leading botanic gardens of the country. Many of 
these were for specialties which have not yet been im¬ 
ported hut the Missouri Botanical Garden, for example, 
has imported upwards of 15,000 plants under special per¬ 
mit, and 4 other importations have been made under these 
permits by botanic gardens. The other permits are still 
outstanding. 
The Board has adopted a policy of great liberality 
with respect to these permits, practically always author¬ 
izing the quantities which were asked for in the request 
for the permit, the point of view of the Board being that 
it wished to afford every reasonable means for the intro¬ 
duction of all plants not available in this country and in 
quantities sufficient to establish reproduction enterprises 
on a scale that would meet any legitimate commercial 
needs. The only requests which have been refused have 
been those asking for permits for the importation of 
plants which are known to be abundantly available in 
this country. 
The large quantities of plants which have been im¬ 
ported under these permits are now being grown in 21 
different States and also in the District of Columbia. 
These importations are the basis for the development in 
this country of stocks of plants which have hitherto been 
imported and have already, or will within a few years go 
very far toward supplying home grown stock in place of 
stock formerly secured from abroad. This action is 
building up horticulture and floriculture in this country 
in the most constructive and permanent way, and at the 
same time is accomplishing the object of the quarantine, 
i. e., elimination of the danger which has hitherto been a 
