THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
199 
the theory that nurserymen are undesirable citizens and 
their business should be held veiy much in restraint. 
It is difficult to understand why there is so much strin¬ 
gent legislation; perhaps the answer is, because the gov¬ 
ernment recognizes the vital importance of the business 
to the welfare of the country, and the officials who are 
elected or appointed to look after those interests fail to 
measure up to their job and assuming to themselves all 
the horticultural knowledge, accomplish little but repres¬ 
sive legislation. 
Considering the strong feeling that has been displayed 
among nurserymen since Quarantine 37 became law, it 
speaks well for the common sense and tact of the officers 
of the Association for inviting Dr. Marlatt to address the 
convention, giving him an opportunity to explain the gov¬ 
ernment’s position on quarantines, and at the same time 
avoiding discussion of a matter that had already become 
law. 
IS UNCLE SAM GOING INTO THE NURSERY 
RUSINESS TO THE EXCLUSION OF ALL OTHERS? 
A few years ago very few in the allied countries could 
be persuaded to believe that Germany was preparing to 
wage a world war for aggrandisement. Statesmen, trav¬ 
elers, generals, and writers constantly warned the world 
that such was the case, but the average man on the street 
pooh-poohed the idea, and put it down as one of the im¬ 
probabilities or impossibilities. The mind could not he 
brought to conceive such a horror as the world has just 
passed through. 
We merely call attention to this to give weight to the 
statements which follow. While, of course, the parallel 
is perhaps ridiculous in one way, it is very deadly. Those 
who are now so much in favor of quarantining and giv¬ 
ing over the government of the horticultural world to 
the entomologist, will perhaps in the very near future 
wonder why they did not have greater foresight. 
If we consider all the regulations, quarantines and law 
pertaining to the transportation and handling of nursery 
stock, it can be veiy readily seen which way the wind 
blows, and the trend of thought and action. 
Nurserymen or florists, or in fact, anyone else who 
now favors such legislation as quarantine No. 37, should 
remember this is only a step that is leading somewhere 
else, and is by no means a final one. Thought and action 
along this line is progressive and will naturally lead to 
quarantines against interstate commerce, except under 
perhaps the most stringent regulations, and ultimately, 
government ownership, through the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment, for that is practically what it would amount to, of 
all the commercial, horticultural enterprises in the 
United States. 
A few of the recent measures are merely straws which 
point in this direction, such as the bill HR 3157, by Con¬ 
gressman Hougen, giving to the Secretary of Agriculture, 
the right in his sole discretion to regulate the transporta¬ 
tion in or through, or the growing or cultivation of horti- 
cultural products in the District of Columbia. 
The bill by Congressman Esch, of Michigan, HR 1227, 
to establish an agricultural plant and experimental sta¬ 
tion at or near Mauston, Wis. The bill presented by Con¬ 
gressman Raker, of California, HR 1127, to provide for 
inspection of any parcel sent by mail, which contains 
fruit, plants, trees, shrubs, nursery stock, grass, scions, 
peach, plum, almond, or the pits of other fruits, cotton 
seed, or vegetables at the point of delivery in any post- 
office of the U. S. that requests such inspection and where 
the requiste inspectors are provided by the states to per¬ 
form such seiTices, referred to the Committee on Agricul¬ 
ture. This bill is similar to a bill filed by the same con¬ 
gressman in the 65th Congress. 
The bill by Congressman Cramton, HR 329, to prevent 
the shipment and sale in interstate commerce of nursery 
stock not true to name. 
These bills show a tendency and are doubtless only a 
beginning, to a very complete and stringent government 
control, which will be able ultimately to place a fence 
around a nursery or horticultural establishment in any 
state, and to put it out of existence. It is time the nur¬ 
serymen and horticulturists woke up to the accumulating 
evidence that this will be the ultimate result of the pres¬ 
ent trend of action, unless there is something done to 
counteract it. 
It may be suggested by some that it will be a good 
thing when ali horticultural enterprise is controlled by 
the government through its experts. 
Those who hold this opinion should not forget that 
governments are largely for the purpose of saying “don’t” 
or “verboden” and that we owe little or nothing of the 
progress made in growing and improving the fruits and 
products of the earth to government enterprise or entomo¬ 
logical knowledge. The fruits and flowers that add so 
much to our happiness and welfare are the result of in¬ 
dividual and commercial enterprise and effort. 
The function of business and commerce is to produce 
and distribute. The function of government is to see that 
it is done fairly and to look after the welfare of the 
people as a whole, and it is evidently working on the as¬ 
sumption that the college men, entomologists and those 
witli political power or in the government employ are the 
best fitted to govern the rest of the horticultural world. 
This assumption may be correct and it is also true that 
the type of horticulturists who are now governing things 
are as rarely successful as producers as a practical hor¬ 
ticulturist is in the laboratory. 
If Uncle Sam is going to attend to the runniiig of the 
nursery business then good business sense would demand 
\that he appoint practical men to boss the job, so our taxes 
will be well spent, v 
RILL H. R. 5939 
Providing for the experimenting of nursery stock. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa¬ 
tives of the United. States of America, in Congress as¬ 
sembled, That the Secretary of Agriculture be, and is 
hereby, authorized to assemble, grow, and test plant ma¬ 
terial deemed desirable or suitable for use in propagating 
fruit, nut, and ornamental trees and other plants, for the 
purpose of determining stocks better adapted to the cli¬ 
matic soil and other conditions under which fruit, nut, 
