100 Years Ago: August 1921 - National Geographic's Collectors Corner2024-03-29T11:31:59Zhttps://ngscollectors.ning.com/forum/topics/100-years-ago-august-1921?commentId=1029239%3AComment%3A278747&xg_source=activity&feed=yes&xn_auth=notag:ngscollectors.ning.com,2022-10-01:1029239:Comment:2787472022-10-01T05:45:06.449ZScott T. Shierhttps://ngscollectors.ning.com/profile/ScottTShier
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10832003084?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10832003084?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-left"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10832003084?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10832003084?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-left"/></a></p> The San Jose scale, which was…tag:ngscollectors.ning.com,2021-08-01:1029239:Comment:2676232021-08-01T20:09:32.525ZGeorge Thomas Wilsonhttps://ngscollectors.ning.com/profile/GeorgeThomasWilson
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The San Jose scale, which was introduces with flowering peach from China some 40 years prior, was costing the country at least $10,000,000 a year for the expense of spraying and in the reduced crop. Similarly, the citrus canker, introduced with Japanese trifoliate orange stock some 13 years prior, Federal and State costs of control work were $2,130,000, while the value of the orchards burned to the ground came to $11,063,000, for a total expense of…</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The San Jose scale, which was introduces with flowering peach from China some 40 years prior, was costing the country at least $10,000,000 a year for the expense of spraying and in the reduced crop. Similarly, the citrus canker, introduced with Japanese trifoliate orange stock some 13 years prior, Federal and State costs of control work were $2,130,000, while the value of the orchards burned to the ground came to $11,063,000, for a total expense of $13,193,000. The oriental fruit worm, brought to this country with flowering Japanese cherries about 1911, when a widespread popular demand for that beautiful flowering tree developed. It threatened our common deciduous fruits – peach, plum, prune, apple, pear, etc. It was firmly established in six eastern States, and probably was more widely distributed. That insect will, in a few years, cost fruit production millions of dollars. The Japanese beetle was another pest of wide range of food habit, and likely to cause tremendous annual losses to all kinds of fruits including not only apple, pear, and plum, etc., but also grape and small fruits. It was introduced, as a grub, in the soil with an importation of Japanese Iris roots about ten years prior. Those hundreds of foreign pests had become permanent factors in American agriculture and horticulture. They ought to have been kept out, but late as the action was taken, it was still an opportunity.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Department of Agriculture compiled and published a catalogue of the more dangerous insect enemies of plants in foreign countries which, for the most part, had not yet gained entry into the U. S. The catalogue was issued as a handbook for plant quarantine inspectors, Federal and State. In it was listed some 3,000 different foreign insect pests. A similar manual was being prepared listing the known foreign fungous diseases of plants, describing and cataloging probable as many diseases as there were insects in the insect catalogue. Many of those insects and diseases were known to be as serious enemies as many of the worst of those already introduced. Those catalogues listed only the known plant enemies. Unfortunately, Enormous areas of the old world had been little, or not at all, explored with respect to such plant enemies, particularly China, Africa, and even much of Europe. Many pests had already come from those area, including; the San Jose scale, the Oriental fruit worm, the citrus canker, and the chestnut blight. They were not known to be pests until after their importation. Most of those introduced plant enemies had come to this country in connection with living plants and many of them with florist and ornamental stock. The alfalfa weevil was imported, hibernating in soil, the only means by which it could get its first foothold in Utah. It was currently affecting six States in the middle West. Other weevils of foreign origin, affecting clover and other plants, undoubtedly were similarly introduced. The Japanese beetle was a recent instance of such introductions. The European earwig was also introduced in soil with imported plants. It had been very troublesome to ornamentals in the estates of Newport, where it got its first foothold. It was a notable pest of garden and ornamental plants, and a very obnoxious house pest. Some of those foreign pests had come in in other ways: the Hessian fly with straw; the Argentine ant as a stowaway in cargo arriving in New Orleans; and the corn-borer with imported broom-corn. The latter two also might have come in soil or living plants. In fact, records dating back to colonial times showed that 90% had come in with living plants.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For some 30 or 40 years prior to 1912, the more important exporting European nations were prohibiting entry of living plants from the U. S. Those prohibitions, first based on the grape phylloxera, were later made more extensive due to the San Jose scale. No living plants from America had, for many years, been permitted to enter France, Germany, or Holland. Similar restrictions had been long enforced by other European countries. The need for national quarantine legislation for the protection of farm, garden, and forest interest of the country was obvious, but took an earnest effort over an extended period. Toward the end of that period, the legislation was hastened by the increase in numbers of the gypsy and brown-tailed moths found on imported plants during the years 1909-12. The entry of the citrus canker, the Japanese beetle, and the European corn-borer all occurred during the last years of the effort to secure the legislation. The Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 was the final outcome of that 14-year effort to secure authority to protect the U. S. from further entry of plant pests. The law had broad quarantine and regulatory powers, specifically on the entry of nursery stock and other plants. During the first seven years of enforcement of the act, an effort was made to prevent the entry of new plant pests through foreign inspection and certification. Those were made in the countries of export, and as an additional safeguard, provision was made for reinspection in this country, either by Federal or State inspectors. Under this system, the best skill, both abroad and at home, was employed, and the imported plants were as free of pests as humanly possible. However, the record of seven years of pest interception indicated that numbers of injurious insects and plant diseases were brought into the U. S. every year. Many of the States were unable to inspect all of the shipments, and no inspection, however expert, could discover all instances of infestation and contagion. During the seven years, 1912-1919, there were 1,051 infested shipments from Holland, involving 148 kinds of insect pests; 1,306 infested shipments from Belgium, involving 64 kinds of insects; 347 infested shipments from France, involved 89 kinds of insects; 154 infested shipments from England, involving 62 kinds of insects; 291 infested shipments from Japan, involving 108 kinds of insects; and 12 infested shipments from Germany, involving 15 kinds of insect pests. Those records were by no means complete. Some of those interceptions included the European tussock moth, harmful to forest and ornamental plants, which was found in 67 shipments from Holland, involving 16 different ornamental plants. Another example were the gypsy and brown-tailed moths, found respectively, in the egg and larva forms, on 63 different shipments of plants. Practically all of those injurious insects were found on the plants, and not in the soil. If any of the often more dangerous species hibernating in the soil, they were not examined, and it was impossible to disinfect the soil without killing the plant it held.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was even more difficult to exclude plant diseases then it was insect pests. Inspections for such diseases were next to useless. Many of those diseases did not develop to a visible stage only after a period of months, or even years, after the plant was imported. The pine blister rust could not be determined for five or six years. Other similar diseases remained undiscoverable by any method except for planting and growing for a long period in quarantine. Two of the three serious diseases of forest trees – the white pine blister rust and the European poplar canker – came from Europe. Both diseases were well known and, in spite of protections, they still were imported. Likewise, the citrus canker came from Japan, but it was not recognized prior to it gaining a foothold in this country. Some twenty-two restrictive orders were applied under the Plant Quarantine Act, mainly in a piecemeal fashion. They were only taken against enemies that were known. It offered no security against such unknown and unanticipated enemies such as the San Jose scale, the Oriental peach moth, the Japanese beetle, the chestnut blight, and the citrus canker.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">After studying that subject for many years, the Department of Agriculture, and several States, decided the only solution was to ban the import of all plant stock not absolutely essential to the horticultural, floricultural, and forestry needs of the U S. Ample provisions had been made for the importation of any plant whatsoever. In other words, no plants are absolutely denied entry into the U. S. In addition to those imports deemed essential, some 650 permits were issued for so-called “prohibited plants”. Under those permits, entry had been authorized of upward of 16,000,000 of those plants involving 5,000 different kinds of plants. Those imports were propagating and reproducing in hundreds of establishments in some 25 different States. It was the Departments intention to continue to permit such entry of necessary plants until such time as we were self-sufficient. Then, with no plants entering the country, it would greatly lessen the risk of entry of new plant pests. The existing restriction had been modified several times, and would be modified further in the future. It was sensible to restrict, as far as possible, importations of plants which, in the past, proved disastrous to the country. No one wanted to go back to the way it was. The plant life of America merited the same protection that was given to animals and man to ward off foreign scourges. If the average American knew as much of plant diseases as he did of human and animal diseases, the necessity of a quarantine against infected plants would not need to be sustained by argument.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Tom Wilson</span></p>