THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
181 
other means of transportation, like the winds—that blow 
uneonlrolled by the Federal Ilortieultiiral Board. 
Millions are being spent every year. Millions were 
spent to control San Jose Scale but without result. To¬ 
day nobody worries. 
Millions are being sj)ent to control Boll-weevil, but Mr. 
Weevil marches steadily on. We are told that a tnonu- 
ment has been erected in tbe South in honor of the Boll- 
weevil because it has forced the Southern planter to di¬ 
versify liis croi)s. Some Southern men say today that 
the Boll-weevil is a blessing; that without it there would 
be so mueh cotton that it would not be worth lOe per 
pound. 
J. II. Hale, the peach king, is quoted as saying that the 
San Jose Scale wos a blessing because it forced the 
orchardist to clean up. 
In view^ of the results, have these quarantines and im¬ 
mense exi)enditures been justified? 
Is it good business policy to continue to spend these 
large sums in channels that are apparently ineffective? 
(lould not ])art of this money be more profitably sj)ent 
in searching for other and more effective remedies than 
quarantines on nursery stock? 
For many years our scientific friends have apparently 
reasoned that troublesome insects and diseases could be 
controlled by regulating the shipments of nursery stock. 
Have the results proven that they are right? Is it not 
time that something else was tried? 
As Federal and State governments have paid Southern 
planters for losses sustained because they were prohib¬ 
ited from grow ing cotton in certain specified zones, should 
not the nurserymen be relndjursed for losses sustained by 
them through some of the activities of the Federal Hor¬ 
ticultural Board and the State Departments? 
June 18th, 1924. 
National Nurseryman, 
Hatboro, Pa. 
Dear Sirs: 
A friend has callecF my attention to an article by Mr. Pithpi 
in your magazine in answer to one of my own in the American 
Nurseryman, Rochester, N. Y. I am very glad that Mr. Pitkin 
has brought up the matter in this light as it was far from my 
intention to criticise the inspection service in any state. I 
believe Mr. Pitkin is more or less familiar with the inspection 
service in this state and if so he knows that it is very thorough 
and that it is not possible for any one not entitled to it to pro¬ 
cure a certificate or to lawfully buy and ship stock not inspected. 
What I had in mind and wanted to bring out was the fact that 
any fellow might, in any state in the union, grow a small block 
of nursery stock and have it inspected and certified to and then 
go out and buy stock from whom he pleased or dig it out of the 
woods and ship that also under his permit tags. While this may 
not have happened in this or New York state I happen to know 
that it has in some of the states, and so far as I know the same 
could be pulled off in any state in the union. These fellows are 
usually agents who have learned the business of selling stock 
and who, quite naturally, realize the advantage of procuring a 
certificate to ship stock, that they may buy from the cheapest 
sources regardless of the quality. Of course the business life 
of such nurserymen is short, but they work harm to the busi¬ 
ness in general. 
Mr. Pitkin says they never buy stock in the state of New York 
that has not been inspected and that all stock bought in other 
states has the certificate of the inspectors of that state. This, 
of course, is the course followed by all reliable and law abiding 
nurserymen, but it was not to these I had reference. I think I 
am safe in saying that in the nursery game that we have, on the 
whole, as fine a lot of men as can be found in any other business 
enterprise, but there is no denying the fact that we have the 
crooked and “twisty” fellows with us, just as every other busi¬ 
ness has, and one of the best things about the proposed Uni¬ 
form Inspection Law is that it will help to eliminate these fel¬ 
lows and put the nursery business on a higher plane and a bet¬ 
ter footing. 
Mr. Pitkin also says “If we buy stock from without the state 
it is our duty to notify the Department of Agriculture or its 
representative, and it is then inspected by such representative 
before it is handled by us in our regular course of business.” 
I take it then that the Chase Nurseries are not satisfied with the 
inspection of stock as it is growing in the nurseries, at least 
in other states, yet the same firm from which they buy may be 
selling the same stock retail and shipping it all over the state 
of New York. Mr. Pitkin criticised the Uniform Inspection Pro¬ 
posal as absurd on the ground that not enough men could bej 
secured to inspect the stock as it was shipped. If the state of 
New York requires that all shipments from without the state 
be inspected it will take more inspectors and cost far more than 
to inspect all shipments as they go out. As a general proposi¬ 
tion I should think an inspector could inspect twenty-five orders 
as they are assembled for pack'ng in the same length of time 
that it would take to inspect one order one hundred miles away. 
One of the troubles with the inspection of shipments on ar¬ 
rival at destination is the delay in attention to and the planting 
of stock occasioned by such inspection. 
I have now before me a letter from a customer in one of the 
Pacific Coast states who says he notified the Department of 
Agriculture as required promptly upon arrival of the shipment 
but that it was several days before an inspector arrived and 
that the trees were badly dried out and damaged in conse¬ 
quence. The requirement that shipments be held unopened till 
inspected helps to complicate matters and will limit sales greatly, 
as would not be the case where shipments were inspected and 
passed at the nursery, as the Uniform Inspection Law proposes. 
Very truly yours, 
J. F. JONES. 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE WITH OTHER 
HORTICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS 
Geo. A. Marshall, Arlington, Nebraska, Chairman 
Th’s being a new committee, we are unable to report results, 
but are pleased to report progress. 
We sent out a circular letter to the secretaries of some 30 of 
our leading allied organizations covering all branches of horti¬ 
cultural interests as nearly as possible. 
In this letter we set forth a few of the many advantages of 
cooperation, informing them that the American Association of 
Nurserymen have appointed a committee for this purpose. We 
urged them to write us freely, giving their views, suggestions, 
etc. Prompt answers came from most of them, all favorable to 
the move,—and a great deal of enthusiasm shown. A few of 
these societies have such a committee now and nearly all of 
the others suggested that they would bring this up and favor the 
appointing of such a committee as soon as possible. So it looks 
like this cooperation work can easily be launched. It might be 
well for a meeting to be called, composed of these various com¬ 
mittees, and try to effect an organizatioin with a chairman and 
secretary at least, so there would be a head, and something tan¬ 
gible to work from. I am sure that a source of cooperation of 
this kind would go a long ways towards ironing out many of our 
troubles. Would also assist in a better understanding with our 
governmental work through the departments at Washington. We 
well understand that our interests are or should be, largely the 
same. And that it is necessary for us to get together on a com¬ 
mon ground for the good of all. 
You know it was a committee like this from a dozen or more 
of the leading horticultural organizations of the country that 
worked out the “Standardized Plant Names,” of which our presi¬ 
dent, Mr. Kelsey, was chairman. This work is of untold value 
and a great step forward. 
We can also see great good coming from another committee 
made up in this way, consisting of pathologists, entomologists, 
scientific horticulturists, botanists and nurserymen who met in 
Cincinnatti last winter and made great progress in getting to¬ 
gether on a common ground for the inspection of nursery stock 
throughout the United States. This l)ids fair to work out an 
agreeable understanding between the nurserymen, the orchard- 
ists, the pathologists and all, that will be a great deal more sat¬ 
isfactory. We believe that by cooperation we can accomplish 
