THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
77 
of the proposed quarantine order, on the ground that the 
Department’s Counsellors had justified the quarantine, 
and for the further reason that the courts could decide 
the legal question. In such an important matter as this 
quarantine it would seem more fair at least to have al¬ 
lowed a brief statement of a debatable legal question, 
and not force interested persons to resort to the expense, 
delays and annoyances of an appeal to the Courts. It is 
provided moreover, by the Plant Quarantine Act, and a 
condition precedent to the promulgation of any valid 
quarantine, that persons shall have a right to be heard. 
If the subject matter of their evidence is censored or 
restricted, it is respectfully suggested that interested 
persons are deprived of a right given them by law, and 
the order issued in consequence of said hearing is 
charged with invalidity. 
QUARANTINE ORDER NO. 37 IS UNNECESSARY. 
Before excluding foreign grown plants propagated in 
such countries as Holland, Belgium, France, England and 
Ireland, the Federal Horticultural Board should have 
I considered other methods of protection. 
In his defense of this Quarantine Order No. 37 the 
Chairman of said Board stated in a Memorandum found 
on pages 2464 to 2466 of the Congressional Record of 
January 30th, 1919 as follows: 
“With respect to the actual condition of nursery 
stock and other plants hitherto received from foreign 
countries it is appreciated that the countries which 
have been most concerned in such exports to the 
United States have established inspection and cer¬ 
tification service with the result of very greatly re¬ 
ducing the amount of infestation on such exported 
plants.” 
i In the opinion of practical nurserymen it is perfectly pos- 
I sible for the United States Department of Agriculture to 
make further regulations of inspection to cure any al¬ 
leged present evils or risks. The representatives of for¬ 
eign governments have expressly and recently agreed to 
' provide further inspections. It is also possible for ex¬ 
perienced United States inspectors to be placed in the 
districts of Europe where this country’s horticultural 
supplies come from. As those districts of England, 
France, Belgium, and Holland are very circumscribed 
and nearly 90% of this country’s imported stocks comes 
from these areas it would be an easy task for these Fed¬ 
eral Inspectors to inspect soil as well as plants and only 
I stock from clean nurseries could be certified for export 
to the United States. For illustration all of the azalea 
: indica imported by American florists for forcing purposes 
i is grown in an extremely limited field near the city of 
Ghent, Belgium. 
j Azaleas imported by American nurserymen are nearly 
all grown in Boskoop, Holland. Ninety per cent, of the 
j small French ornamental stock is grown in Orleans and 
1 Angers. Foreign nurserymen would be only too glad to 
submit to this voluntary inspection and restriction. This 
i plan would meet the objection to earth balled plants 
*1 which was the only regulation of European exports pro- 
'v posed in the notice of hearing and at the hearing of 
. May 28th. 
' Federal and state inspection in this country could be 
immeasurably improved. 
A follow-up inspection of importations could be ini¬ 
tiated. 
Nurserymen submit that nursery stock has been com¬ 
ing from the above described countries of Europe for 
veiy many years and without infestations or infections 
or that any pests or diseases have been eradicated by the 
nurserymen themselves, or as a result of official inspec¬ 
tion and control under the Federal Plant Quarantine Act 
or under state inspection. Since the passage of the Plant 
Quarantine Act in 1912 we have the record that not one 
single tree disease or dangerous plant disease has been 
introduced into this country on nursery stock. 
Order No. 37 is a confession of a breaking down in 
Federal inspection or in the promulgation of satisfactoiy 
inspection regulations or in securing international agree¬ 
ments. These failures, however, should not be the ex¬ 
cuse for exclusion of valuable trees and plants. 
THE ORDER IS UNFAIR 
Order No. 37 permits entry of six bulbs, but excludes 
many bulbs of the same appearance or characteristics 
grown by the same growers, in the same fields and un¬ 
der entirely similar conditioais. If there is any reason 
for this discrimination, it is not known to nurserymen. 
It is not true that “these excluded bulbs are less impor¬ 
tant and (are) miscellaneous importations coming from 
widely scattered sources over the world.” There are 
many roots or corms just as clean and easy of inspection 
as the favored bulbs. A little effort by the inspectors 
could protect this country from the rarely appearing 
diseases or pests. 
Even the admitted bulbs cannot come packed in soil— 
a serious limitation because this packing takes up mois¬ 
ture and prevents freezing in transit. This packing dirt 
is or can be sterilized, and in no event is it the soil in 
which the bulbs grew. 
Rose stocks for propagation are admitted but rose 
plants, the finished product, are excluded, on what 
ground it is impossible to appreciate for never has any 
pest been detected on imported rose plants. The Board 
has wholly escaped the consequences of this unnecessary 
quarantine. Since the war, this country has not been 
able to import rose plants resulting in the wholesale 
price rising from eight to ten cents apiece to today’s 
price of twenty-five cents. If Order No. 37 is not re¬ 
voked, the price will probably be affected thereby. 
If fruit stocks, seedlings and seeds may be imported 
under this order, there is not the slightest more danger 
in admitting Norway maples, lindens, beech, birch, sweet 
shrub mock orange, high bush cranberry, and other beau¬ 
tiful ornamental stocks. All these stocks are produced 
from seed and imported when two years old, being 
grown in the same nurseries and under exactly the same 
conditions as the Rosa Rugosa. 
The Board bases its right of discrimination between 
nursery stocks on economic grounds. The Board finds 
that there is danger from imported fruit stocks and seed¬ 
lings, but admits them because this country must have 
them or lose its best orchards. But ornamentals are ex¬ 
cluded under the mandatory words of section seven of 
the Plant Quarantine Act. The nurserymen fail to see a 
justification for this discrimination by executive action. 
I 
