148 



A^ IF.RICAX FORl-.STRY 



introduction in the future. Our judgment from past ex- 

 periences warns us of even greater evils to come. 



Unwise persons have asserted that soon \vc will ha\-e 

 imported all the pests which threaten us, and this danger 

 will have passed. Impossible! No one cognizant of the 

 multitudes of dangerous insects and [ilant diseases through- 



LOOSE SMUT OF WHEAT 



A wide-spread though generally much less destructive smut than bunt. It 

 causes an estimated annual loss of $7,7.15,000 to farmers of the United States. 

 It can be prevented by hot water treatment. Infection occurs at flowering 

 time, 



out the world as yet unreported in this country would 

 accept an hypothesis. Just as a wise physician can diag- 

 nose a dangerous disease in its incipient stage, or can fore- 

 see an epidemic, if quarantine regulations were abandoned 

 or unenforced, so can a plant physician and entomologist 

 foresee calamity to agriculture in its various branches, 

 when precautions are ignored, and dangerous pests per- 

 mitted entry and establishment. 



Unknown dangers lurk in every shipment of ]i]ants to 

 America from foreign lands. Even though it might be 

 humanly possible to inspect them for known foreign pests, 

 certain insects and diseases which may be in.signifioant in 

 their original native surroundings, when introduced into 

 new territory without their natural enemies and checks, 

 and, perchance, finding new and more pleasing host plants, 

 will multiply with startling rapidity, and .soon become 

 destructive pests. The chestnut Ijlight, white pine blister 



disease, the citrus canker, cotton boll \\ee\il and San Jos6 

 scale arc notable examples of develo]iment under these 

 circumstances. Every plant-feeding insect has the in- 

 herent x^alencjf^ of a destructive pest. 



Nature conserves the balance, which too frequently 

 is disturbed by commerce and agricultural practices of 

 ci\'ilized men. The pristine condition of America from 

 an agricultural standpoint was ideal for the production 

 of amazing crops at low cost, on account of the paucity 

 of destructive insects and plant diseases. Could our plants 

 and seeds have been introduced without the attendant 

 diseases and insects, we might to-day have been grow- 

 ing ]iotatoes free from late blight and rot. powdery 



BUNT OR STI.NKI.N'G SMUT OF WHEAT 



This is controllable by seed treatment. It causes an annual loss of $.54,000,000 

 to farmers of the United States. A wide-spread disease spread by planting smutty 

 seed and in some sections by winds and smutty heads left in harvested fields. 

 Crushed smut balls smell like decaying fish. 



scab and scurf, and there would ha\e been no neces- 

 sity for the autumn reduction of the midsuminer es- 

 timates of the potato crop by our Federal Agricultu- 

 ral Department by millions of bushels, occasioned by 

 uncontrolled ravages of the late blight and rot in 1916. 

 The potato, like certain other of our agricultural prod- 

 ucts, was introduced from abroad, and in the absence 

 of the introduced pests and diseases our crops would 

 be fully returned. 



Since the organization of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board, and the subsequent inspection of imported plant 



