322 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
McHutchison & Company 
New York, N. Y. 
November 13th, 1919. 
The Federal Horticultural Board, 
Washiiigtoii, D. C. 
Gentlemen:— 
By request of several of our Canadian customers we 
have received prices from them upon Holland nursery 
stock, consisting for the most part of Azalea Mollis, Rho¬ 
dodendrons, Magnolias, Boxwood, Roses, etc.,—which 
Canadian laws do not prevent Canadian florists from im- 
j)orting to stimulate their own commerce, as our U. S. 
laws do. 
These nursery stock items are mostly hailed, i. e. with 
earth about the roots—and according to one of your re¬ 
cent letters you advised that such stock cannot come 
through U. S. entry ports when earth is about the roots, 
even though they are bonded through to Canadian ports. 
You will see how your regulations work to the disad¬ 
vantages of American trade, and will mean that such 
shipments will have to be forwarded via English and 
Canadian ports, thus driving commerce away from Amer¬ 
ican ports. It will also be a disadvantage to the Cana¬ 
dian importers, as they will get slower service at an in¬ 
creased price. 
Before issuing our quotations we suggest, as patriotic 
Americans, that you reconsider the matter. As these 
shipments are not unpacked in the U. S. there is not the 
slightest danger of introducing insect pests or plant 
diseases in the U. S. through them, and we do not think 
it is your intention to drive commerce away from the U. S. 
without adequate reasons. 
In quoting to Canadian firms we must either say that 
the shipments can come in bond through New York ports 
as usual, or that we can book orders only when the im¬ 
porter makes arrangements for shipments to come via 
English and Canadian ports, so we trust you will give 
proper consideration to the matter and advise us your 
final decision as soon as possible We are receiving al¬ 
most daily requests from Chamber of Commerce and 
other commercial bodies to boost foreign trade, but so far 
as our business is concerned your regulations block any 
efforts we could make. 
Yours truly, 
(Signed) McHutchison & Co. 
Federal Horticultural Board 
Washington, D. C. 
November 17, 1919. 
McHulchison & Co., 
95 Chambers St., 
New York, N. Y. 
Gentlemen:—• 
In reply to your letter of November 13th, I would say 
lhat although our regulations prohibiting the importation 
inlo the United States of plants with sand, soil and earth 
on their roots even for transmission in bond do work 
some disadvantage to Amercan brokers, they are designed 
lo act to a far greater advantage to the growers of plants 
in the United States. One of the most important sources 
of foreign insects which have come into the United States 
and have attacked our nursery crops, farm crops and 
wild and ornamental trees has been the balls ot earth 
about the roots of imported plants. Many insects spend 
their lives buried in the soil and emerge from this soil to 
attack our plants. Even though the soil is tied up in 
sacks and packed in boxes these insects may emerge and 
fly away from a package, thus gaining entry into this 
country. It is therefore one of the very necessary safe¬ 
guards of this immediate transportation in bond tliat the 
plants shall not have sand, soil or earth on their roots and 
that bulbs shall not be packed in sand, soil or earth, ex¬ 
cept such sterilized soil as is provided for in Amendment 
1 to Regulations Supplemental to Notice of Quarantine 
37, a copy of which I enclose. ,, 
Very truly yours, 
(Signed) R. Kent Beattie„ 
Pathologist in Charge, Foreign Plant Quarantines. 
HOME GARDEN FRUITS 
{Continued from last month) 
II.. 
In these days of government and state departments of 
agriculture, of agricultural colleges, and experiment sta¬ 
tions, and of huge commercial fruit growing interests, 
amateur fruit growers are too prone to consider them¬ 
selves as “merely amateurs” and therefore relegated to a 
less useful class than that of the scientists. From the 
spectaeular standpoint they are doubtless correct, be¬ 
cause they have neither institution nor title to push them, 
whether worthy or not, into prominence. Nevertheless, 
without the least intention to belittle the work of the 
seientists it must be said that the world owes an incal- 
eulable debt of gratitude, to say nothing of monetary con¬ 
siderations, to countless amateurs—printers, merchants, 
doctors, lawyers, lumbermen, millers, editors, factory 
hands and last, but by no means least, nurserymen and 
farmers— who had no “college training” in agriculture, 
who in no sense considered themselves scientists, but who 
used what knowledge they had to solve pomological prob¬ 
lems for the love of still better knowledge to give to the 
world. 
Perhaps the greatest service they have rendered is in 
the origination of new varieties. In this work they were 
largely gropers because the laws of plant breeding a gen¬ 
eration ago were far less understood than today. Through 
enhaneed knowledge this same field of variety origination 
offers even more wonderful opportunities than in the past. 
While beyond the scope of this address, I am eager to 
point out that herein, lies the greatest interest for the 
amateur—this matter of variety origination; for, just as 
in the past, the orignator of new varieties may do his 
work in a back yard, as did Edward Staniford Rogers in 
his garden, of which Marshall P. Wilder wrote, “It is 
150 years old; a cold matted soil, filled with old apple and 
pear trees, currant bushes, flax and everything mingled 
together ... .a close, hived up place in the city of Salem;” 
nowadays with increased knowledge of the laws of plant 
breeding we have far greater chances of making fortun¬ 
ate combinations of parents and of finding varieties su¬ 
perior to those now under cultivation than in bygone 
years. 
In support of this contention let it he remembered that 
Luther Burhank, himself a Massachusetts product, started 
his business as a factory hand but became a grower of 
