Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the American Association of Official Horticultural Inspectors

The fourteenth annual meeting of the American Association of Official Horticultural Inspectors was held in Columbus, Ohio, December 28 and 29, 1915. On the evening of December 28 the first session was called to order in the House of Representatives, State Capitol, by the Chairman, W. E. Rumsey, with J. G. Sanders, Secretary.

The second session was held in the Botany and Zoology Building of the Ohio State University at 10.00 a. m. Wednesday, December 29. The Legislative Committee of the National Nurserymen's Association was represented on invitation by Mr. J. H. Dayton of the Storrs & Harrison Co., Painesville, Ohio, who reported on the acceptance of the Uniform Inspection Bill by the nurserymen at their national convention in Detroit, Michigan, in June, 1915. Mr. Dayton reported that it was a gratifying advance in horticultural legislation to note the closer feeling of coöperation among the nurserymen and the entomologists. He conveyed the sentiments of the nurserymen to our Association and expressed a wish for the continued good feeling and ccöperation existing at present.

The program as presented at the two sessions of the meetings was as follows:

PROGRAM

Tuesday, December 28, 1915, 8.00 p. m.

1. Address of the Chairman: "Control of the Cedar Rust in West Virginia," by Professor W. E. Rumsey, Morgantown, W. Va.

2. "Foreign Pests Recently Established in New Jersey," by Harry B. Weiss, New Brunswick, N. J. (10 minutes.)

3. "Imported Insect Pests Collected on Imported Nursery Stock in 1915," by E. R. Sasscer, Washington, D. C. (10 minutes.)

4. "The Uniform Horticultural Inspection Law," by J. G. Sanders, Madison, Wis. (10 minutes.)

5. "Report of the Legislative Committee of the National Nurserymen's Association," by J. H. Dayton, Painesville, Ohio.

Wednesday, December 29, 1915, 10.00 a. m.

6. "Remarks on Inspection Facilities in the District of Columbia," by E. R. Sasscer, Washington, D. C. Illustrated. (10 minutes.)

7. "Vacuum Fumigation and Its Application to the Control of Insects Affecting Plants and Plant Products," by E. R. Sasscer, Washington, D. C. Illustrated. (15 minutes.)

8. "The Betterment of Pathological Inspection," by R. Kent Beattie, Washington, D. C.

9. "Nursery Inspection in Florida," by F. M. O'Byrne, Gainesville, Fla.

10. "Cooperation in the Establishment of State Quarantines," by J. Edward Taylor, Salt Lake City, Utah.

11. "The Ohio Inspection System," by N. E. Shaw, Columbus, Ohio. Illustrated. (15 minutes.)

BUSINESS

Professor W. J. Schoene, Blacksburg, Virginia, was nominated as Chairman of this section for 1916, and J. G. Sanders, Madison, Wisconsin, was reëlected Secretary.

The following persons were in attendance at the sessions of the meetings:

SUMMARY OF PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. Address of the Chairman. Professor Rumsey described the losses occasioned by the "cedar rust" on the apple crop in West Virginia and outlined the steps taken for controlling the situation, which included the destruction of cedars over a large area. Some conflict with property owners was encountered but after tactful maneuvering the situation was cared for and the difficulties overcome. The situation is gratifying at the present time. Dr. Headlee asked what diameter

of zone was considered necessary for immunity from the "cedar rust disease. Mr. Rumsey replied that one mile from commercial orchards. was decided as necessary distance and this plan was carried out wherever possible. Remarks were made by several relative to the compensation for destruction of property in cleanup work for diseases and pests.

2. Mr. Weiss' paper, which listed the many species of insects which have been recently introduced and have become established in New Jersey, was presented by Dr. Headlee who supplemented the paper with remarks in which he recommended rather drastic action. to prevent repetition of these alarming conditions. During the discussion it was moved by Dr. Headlee "that it be the sense of this body that the federal quarantine be strengthened, and that an absolute quarantine be placed on all plants imported with soil about the roots, except such as are introduced by the U. S. Department of Agriculture for experiment and those to be held in quarantine for a reasonable period." This motion was passed unanimously and the Secretary instructed to notify the Federal Board of this action.

It was further suggested by one of the members, that state inspectors should convey their suggestions and judgment on inspection matters to the Federal Horticultural Board; and further, that state inspectors and officials take notice of hearings before this Board (which are usually advertised), and that whenever possible should be present at these meetings.

Mr. Burgess reported that Christmas trees and greens to the extent of over forty-one carloads, containing 1,200 to 1,800 trees each, had been shipped from the quarantine area in New England, all of which had been inspected previous to shipment and a considerable number of egg clusters of the gipsy moth had been found on these trees. All carload lots went from New Hampshire and Maine and had been shipped to many of the states of the Union, including such states as Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington and Oregon, where already grows a plentiful supply of Christmas trees and greens.

It was the sense of the inspectors present that the Federal Quarantine should be replaced on Christmas greens, otherwise several of the states would absolutely quarantine the shipments of Christmas trees originating in the moth quarantine area.

3. "Imported Insect Pests Collected on Imported Nursery Stock in 1915," by E. R. Sasscer, Washington, D. C.

In this paper, which will appear later in the JOURNAL, Mr. Sasscer reports special features of the inspection of imported nursery stock under the Federal Plant Quarantine Act. He called attention to the annually increasing amount of imported nursery stock, and reported

the detection of a number of dangerous insects. Special attention was called to the fact that recently two troublesome insects, namely, the European ear-wig and the European mole cricket, had become established in certain eastern states. It is the belief of the writer that these insects had been introduced in soil about the roots of imported plants.

4. The Secretary reported that the Uniform Horticultural Inspection law, which had been under consideration for three years, had been considered by a committee appointed at the last annual meeting and alterations and improvements were made in the bill.

This bill was finally adopted by the National Nurserymen's Association in their annual meeting in Detroit in June, 1915, and Mr. Curtiss Nye Smith of Boston had been retained as their attorney to aid in the adoption of this bill, wholly or in part, wherever changes in state horticultural inspection laws were contemplated.

5. The substance of Mr. Dayton's remarks appears on a previous

page.

6. Mr. Sasscer explained the convenient arrangement of buildings and apparatus for inspection of material introduced into the District of Columbia, and described the extreme precautions for sanitation where suspected plant material was being examined and quarantined.

7. Mr. Sasscer's paper on vacuum fumigation is withheld for publication elsewhere, but the importance of the results which he has secured in fumigating tightly packed bales of cotton by the vacuum processes, using cyanide gas, marks a greatly advanced step in fumigation methods. We can scarcely realize what may be the ultimate outcome of this method of successful fumigation.

8. Mr. Beattie's plea for more carefully trained inspectors was gratifying. He illustrated by several examples what diseases have become established through inefficient and poorly trained inspectors where recognition of dangerous plant diseases was not possible until too late. 9. Nursery inspection conditions in Florida were outlined by Mr. O'Byrne, whose paper will be published later.

10. Mr. J. Edward Taylor described the conditions regarding state quarantines in the West, which were not desirable, and pleaded for greater coöperation among the states. He spoke particularly regarding the effect of unfortunate state quarantines on the shipment of alfalfa seed with regard to possible alfalfa weevil infestation.

11. Illustrated with a series of fine slides, Mr. Shaw described the Ohio system of nursery inspection and the methods used in inspection and fumigation of infested stock. A number of fumigation houses of different types were illustrated and valuable pointers in fumigation house construction were offered.

CONTROL OF THE CEDAR RUST IN WEST VIRGINIA

ADDRESS OF THE CHAIRMAN

By W. E. RUMSEY, Morgantown, W. Va.

GENTLEMEN: To have the honor of presiding at a session of our Association is certainly appreciated by your present chairman. An elaborate address will not be attempted but some remarks may be appropriate at this time concerning the "snags" encountered by West Virginia in attempting to enforce certain features of her nursery and orchard inspection laws. Therefore, with your indulgence, the eradication of red cedars in the vicinity of apple orchards will be considered.

The damage by apple rust or so-called "cedar rust" to orchards. in the eastern panhandle of our state has been enormous, amounting to $75,000.00 in 1912 in Berkeley county alone. This is a conservative estimate and includes merely the loss to the crop for that year, not taking into consideration the devitalization of the trees which prevented them from developing fruit-buds for a succeeding crop.

Since the scope of our crop pest law includes any dangerously injurious insects or plant diseases that are liable to spread and cause damage, the commission decided to make an effort to check apple rust by the removal of red cedars in sections where the apple industry had developed sufficiently to make the cedar trees a nuisance. Spraying for this disease is not practical commercially as has been determined by investigations of our plant pathologist, N. J. Giddings, and others, hence the only recourse is the removal of cedars.

The cedar tree proposition is rather unique. These trees have been growing in certain portions of our state since time immemorial, and it has been only within the last few years that the disease, which cedars harbor, has caused any serious loss to apple crops. At the present time these trees do the general farmer no particular harm except to take his pasture fields, for the cedars come up from seeds like weeds. and it is said that no kind of stock will eat even the young plants. Besides this there is an æsthetic side that must not be ignored. Long stretches of cedars on both sides of country roads and clumps of them, clothed in perpetual green, covering many rocky knolls and ledges of the limestone outcrop, add much to the scenic beauty of the Shenandoah Valley.

Owing to the prevalence and destructiveness of apple rust in Berkeley county, one of the foremost apple sections of our state, the commission began its activities in this territory. On account of the unique