THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
93 
it impossible to provide for the entry under proper safeguard of 
any plant for which a reasonable need can be indicated. 
How Plants may come into the United States 
1. Unlimited entry is possible without permit or other re¬ 
striction of field, vegetable, and flower seeds, and of fruits, 
vegetables, cereals, and other plant products imported for med¬ 
icinal, food, or manufacturing purposes. 
2. Unlimited entry is possible under permit of from 80 to 90 
per cent of the bulbs hitherto imported; of all stocks, cuttings, 
scions, and buds of fruits; the important rose stocks, and all 
seeds of fruit and forest trees and of ornamental plants and 
shrubs, including hardy perennial plants. 
3. Entry, limited only by legitimate needs, of all other plants 
is provided for under special permit for the purpose of keeping 
the country supplied with any new variety or any necessary pro¬ 
pagating stock. 
4. The exceptions to these paragraphs (1 to 3) are those in¬ 
volved under specific quarantines, as, for example, the quaran¬ 
tines relative to citrus plants, bamboo, banana, etc., but any 
plants prohibited entry under such quarantines may be import¬ 
ed by or through the United States Department of Agriculture, 
for any necessary experimental, scientific, or introduction pur¬ 
poses. 
The classification of plants above given includes all plants 
and seeds whatsoever for propagation or other uses, and indi¬ 
cates clearly the purpose of the Department and the provisions 
of the quarantine to provide for the entry now and hereafter of 
any necessary or useful plant, and in quantities sufficient to 
meet any reasonable need. 
How Plants May be Imported 
It is not necessary to consider the importation which is un¬ 
limited as to quantity and practically unrestricted of the plants 
and seeds in the first two groups of plants as classified above. 
The third group of plants in this classification includes all or¬ 
namentals and other plants not included in groups 1 and 2 and 
it is the restrictions on importations of this group that are ob¬ 
jected to in this propaganda. As already indicated, provision is 
made under the quarantine for the importation of any of these 
plants under special permits, the only limitation being the show¬ 
ing of the necessity for their importation to supply stocks of 
any new plants or of any old plants not now commercially avail¬ 
able in the United States, for the purpose of establishing repro¬ 
duction plantings which may ultimately make this country inde¬ 
pendent of further foreign supplies. With respect to such im¬ 
portations, the Department has adopted a policy of great 
liberality under the point of view that it wishes to afford every 
reasonable means for the introduction for the purpose indicated 
of any plants not now available in this country. The immediate 
sale of plants thus imported is necessarily not permitted, and 
the plants imported are required to be kept and utilized for the 
purpose of reproducing additional stocks for the period (1 to 5 
years) designated in the permit, this period being based upon 
the time needed for such multiplication or reproduction. No re¬ 
strictions are placed on the sale of any plants produced from 
such imported stock except that the importer will be expected 
to maintain a sufficient supply to meet his continuing needs. 
Special permits for such importations are issued to any and all 
applicants who agree to the conditions of the permits and will 
be continued to be issued with respect to any plant until the 
Department of Agriculture is convinced that adequate stocks 
are commercially available in the United States. 
Plant Experts Pass on all Special Permits 
With respect to any requests for a special permit, the deter¬ 
mination whether the plants requested are either new or are 
commercially unavailable in the United States is made by a 
committee of experts appointed by the Chief of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry of the Department, men therefore who are thor¬ 
oughly acquainted with the subject. In addition, the recom¬ 
mendation of this committee before being returned to the Board 
receives the approval of the Chief of that Bureau. With respect 
to such permits, furthermore, the Department recognizes that 
plants may be common throughout the country and yet not 
available commercially and for such plants also special permits 
will be issued. Undoubtedly some errors have been made in re¬ 
fusing permits, but on proper presentation of evidence the per¬ 
mits in question have been issued. There may also have been 
some lack of uniformity at the outset before an adequate sys¬ 
tem of records and control was worked out but under the ex¬ 
isting system action should be uniform. The Board, howevei, 
will give careful consideration to evidence with respect to any 
permit which would warrant its issuance even over the recom¬ 
mendation of the experts of the Bureau of Plant Industry. The 
Board’s own function with respect to such permits is to insuie 
uniformity and to enforce the conditions embodied in the per¬ 
mits. 
The requirement of a bond in connection with such special 
permits has been objected to in a few instances. It developed 
that such bonding of permittees was a necessary requirement. 
The mere promise of a few importers at least was apparently not 
sufficient and at the outset plants imported under special per¬ 
mits for the purpose of propogation were in some instances 
promptly sold in violation of the permit. The bond seems to be 
the only means of insuring full compliance with the permit and 
unfortunately it is a burden which must fall on all alike. The 
bond employed, however, is the one which has been long used in 
the Customs Service for similar purposes and has not proved any 
serious bar to plant importations, as evidenced by the special per¬ 
mits already issued and the importations made thereunder, dis¬ 
cussed below. 
Record of Importations of “Prohibited Plants” 
The records of actual importations of this class of so-called 
“prohibited plants” makes a very informing statement with re¬ 
spect to the charges of “total plant exclusion,” “Chinese wall,” 
etc. The records of the Department indicate that since the pro¬ 
mulgation of this quarantine some 650 permits have been issued 
for the entry of those so-called “prohibited plants.” The plants 
authorized entry in these permits include bulbs, ornamentals, 
roses, orchids, herbaceous plants, etc., to a total of upwards of 
sixteen million plants. The bulk of these is naturally represented 
by bulbs and bulblets which must be secured in large quantities 
for adequate reproduction purposes, but the permits also include 
several hundred thousand ornamentals. Altogether these per¬ 
mits include authority for the entry of 5,000 different varieties 
of plants out of some 5500 covered in the requests received, in 
other words, ten out of eleven of the plant varieties requested 
have been authorized entry. These special permits are valid or 
may be extended until the plants authorized have been secured 
and entered and many of them are still in force. The “pro¬ 
hibited plants” thus imported are now being grown in hundreds 
of establishments in some twenty-five different States and also 
in the District of Columbia. This new plant production develop¬ 
ment should within a few years make us independent of much of 
the stock which was formerly secured abroad and will build up 
horticulture and floriculture in this country in the most con¬ 
structive and permanent way, and, at the same time, accom¬ 
plish the object of the quarantine, namely, to very materially 
lessen the danger which has hitherto been a continuing and 
heavy one, of entry of new destructive plant pests. This does 
not look like an “embargo” or a “Chinese wall plant policy for 
America!” 
Functions of tiie Federal Horticultural Board Misunderstood 
There seems to be a general misapprehension with respect to 
the functions of the Federal Horticultural Board in relation to 
this and other quarantines promulgated by the Department of 
Agriculture. This point of view is voiced in the propaganda 
referred to in such expressions as “The Horticultural Board is 
the controller of the horticultural research and commerce, Pei- 
mits issued or denied arbitrarily;” “The official acting for the 
Federal Horticultural Board determines the quantity of any 
plants which in his wishes it is proper to admit;’ The piesent 
Federal Horticultural Board is composed of plant pathologists 
and entomologists and has neither knowledge of nor interest in 
the development of the garden art and all that it means to 
America!” “There is no reason why five men, none of whom is 
a horticulturist, should have power of life and death oyei the 
florists and nurserymen of this country, a power prohibiting 
millions of amateur gardeners from growing the plants which 
they desire,” etc. 
What is the Board and WnAT are its Powers f 
The Plant Quarantine Act of August 20, 1912, provides: ‘‘That 
for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act there 
shall be appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture from existing 
bureaus and offices in the Department of Agriculture, including 
the Bureau of Entomology, the Bureau of Plant Industry, and the 
Forest Service, a Federal Horticultural Board consisting of 1 i\ e 
members, of whom not more than two shall be appointed from 
any one bureau or office, and who shall serve without additional 
compensation.” As now constituted, this Board includes two 
persons from the Bureau of Entomology, two from the Bureau ot 
Plant Industry, and one from the Forest Service. 
The misconception in relation to this Board is chiefly that it 
has full powers and is a law unto itself and acts arbitrarily on its 
own information and on its own whim. In point of fact, the 
Secretary of Agriculture is designated as the responsible ad¬ 
ministrator of the act and the Board is appointed to assist the 
Secretary in such administration, and all quarantines or otnei 
regulatory orders under the act are issued by the Secretary ot 
