The age-herald., 1898-02-03
GERMANS REFUSE
 AMERICAN APPLES Sixteen Thousand Barrels Denied
 Admittance. WERE FILLED WITH VERMlN Is the Reason Given By Washington
 Officials. ORDERS GIVEN TO ALL PORTS Thought in Washington to Be the Ger mans Spirit of Retaliation ON ACCOUNT DUTY ON BOUNTY SUGAR Which is Said to Discriminate Against That Country-Representat Mills Says
 It Is the Natural Sequence
 of the Tariff Bill.
Thought in Washington to Be the Ger
 mans Spirit of Retaliation
ON ACCOUNT DUTY ON BOUNTY SUGAR

Berlin Feb. 2-The Prussian minister of finance, Dr. Miguel issued a decree yester- day which goes into effect immediately. prohibiting the importation of every kind of American fresh fruit. The decree has been sent to all the German ports and from tier stations excepting Bavaria, saxony and Wurtemburg.
 The United States embassy was not pre- viously warned, and the United States am- bassador, MT. Andrew D. White, sent Q formal letter to the foreign office today in- quiring upon what authority this inimieal step was taken.
 The United States consul at Hamburg, Dr. Hugh Pitcairn, telegraphs that 1600o barrels of American apples have been for bidden to be unloaded and that two trains of American fruit have also been forbidden to cross the frontier at Emmerich. which. aside from Hamburg, is the principal place of entry.
 No Omcial Information
 Washington, Feb. 2-The officials of the agricultural department have as yet re- ceived no information on the subject. They are disposed to believe that the explana- ton that importations of fresh fruit will be prohibited because of danger from ver- min, is not sincere one but that Ger many, having in mind the recent legisla- tion of the American government, impos- ing a discriminating duty on bounty paid sugar, has taken this action as a sort of retaliation.
 MT. G. B. Bracket, the chief of the Pomologcal division of the department in discussing the dispatch, said: "It is sur prising that any charge should be made that California fruit is infested with pests. The fruit from that state is the freest from vernin of any in the whole country. She has stringent laws against the introduc- tion of insect pests and diseases and has a corps of inspectors who examine all nur- sery stock before it is permitted to be im- ported. There is little or no ground for the statement that American fruit shipped abroad is unsanitary. The pest from which the American apples suffer are the Laru- ave of the Coddling moth, which develops into worm and also from the apple mag got. The possibility of any harm from these pests in apples shipped abroad Is, however, very remote.
 Very Few to Germany
 "Especially is this the case with Ger. many, because very few of our apples which have been shipped to Europe for the past twenty-five years go to that country Our fruit is not inspected before 1t is ex- ported, though the natural assumption Is that dealers pick out the choicest and most select before sending it away in order that the reputation may be kept up. Apples are the only fresh fruits which are shipped to Europe at this time of the year. Peaches and oranges have been sent mostly as an experiment and they go mainly to Eng land. The growth of the shipment of ap- ples abroad has been enormous in the last sixteen years. In 1SS0-M the shipments amounted to 1,81S,S6 barrels while in lS9b-T they aggregated 2,919,S46 barrels. Of this aggregate Ill ,09O barrels valued at $213,4S2 were shipped to Hamburg, the remaining number with the exception of approxi- mately 100000 barrels going to English ports. Of course 1t is likely some of the fruit which is sent to England reaches Ger many indirectly, though there are no sta- tistics on hand to tell the precise amount"
 Loss Not Great.
 On the basis of the above indicated ship ments to Hamburg, it is evident that the loss to America by the prohibition of the importation, as stated, would not be as great as if this prohibition should apply to all Europe. The fact of this whole matter is that we are the ones that should be protected, for nearly all the insects in our fruits have been imported from for egn countries.
 The Berlin cable announcing that Ger many has closed her ports against Amer ican fruits attracted much attention among members of the house of repre- sentatiyes.
 MT. Hit, chairman of the committee on . foreign affairs, expressed surprise at the step taken, and says that it should be preceded with notice to our representa- lives at Berlin. Without discussing the motives of the movement, Mir. Hitt said 1t was evident Germany based her course on sanitary grounds, which would exclude the idea that the move was of a political and proscriptive nature. Mir. Hit ex- pressed hope that this was not step in Germany's retaiatory policy which had