66 SIXTEENTH BIENNIAL REPORT 



(Press Notice) 



Quarantiiie Placed Agauist Fruit Stocks from the Orient 



April 2, 1920. 



Ttie Secretary of Agriculture has issued a quarantine effective June 1, prohib- 

 iting the importation of fruit Stocks, cuttiugs, scions and buds from Asia, Japan, 

 the Pliilippine Islands and Oceania. This quarantine was issued in response to a 

 hearing lield at the department in Washington, March 9, and is for the purpose 

 of excluding from the United States diseases and insects which are known to 

 infest such materials in various Orienlal countries. These pests include caukers, 

 blister blights and rusts, the Orieutal fruit moth, the pear fruit borer and the 

 apple moth. 



This quarantine has very little commercial significance, as the importations 

 involved are limited in quantity and of minor importance. Such imported fruit 

 Stocks and cuttings have hitherto come chiefly from France or other European 

 countries, and only recently have some requests for permits for the importation 

 of such stock from Japan been received. 



Enough is known of the insects and diseases which attack such trees in the 

 Orient to indicate the extreme undesirahility of opening up general commercial 

 importation of such articles. Furthermore, no adequate survey of these coun- 

 tries has been made, and the diseases which are not known probably outnumber 

 those which are known. It will still lie possible under quarantine No. 37, to 

 which this action is an amendment, to Import the articles prohibited through the 

 agency of the Department of Agriculture and under füll departmental disinfection 

 and control to meet all legitimate needs for the introduction of any new varieties 

 or strains of necessary stock which would otherwise not be available for horti- 

 culturists in this country. 



STERILE PACKING MATERIAL FOR PACKING FOR BULBS AUTHORIZED 



Amendment No. 1 to Quarantine No. 37 provides that the requirement as to 

 freedom from sand, soil or earth shall not apply to sand, soll or earth used 

 for packing the articles enumerated in item No. 1 of Regulation 3 when such 

 sand, soil or earth has been previously sterilized in accordance with methods 

 prescribed by the Federal Horticultural Board under the supervision of an 

 authorized inspector of the country of origin. such sterilization to be certified to 

 by the duly authorized inspector of such country of origin. With resiiect to this 

 amendment, the board has authorized the use of certain materials as fulfilling 

 the requirements of sterilization, such materials, however, to be subject to 

 certification, as to compliance with the required couditions, by the duly authorized 

 inspector of the country of origin. The following Substitutes for sterilized soil 

 have been authorized : 



(1) Sulisoil from Japan. — The authorization of the use of subsoil from Japan 

 was based on the results of an investigation made by the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try of this department. which indicated that unsterilized subsoil contains less 

 organisms than loam or top soil. even after the latter has been submitted to 

 the Standard process of sterilization. The conditions of the use of such soil are 

 indicated in the paragraphs quoted below, which were submitted for approval by 

 Dr. S. I. Kuwana, director of the imperial plant quarantine Station, Yokohama, 

 Japan : 



All soil used in packing bulbs to be shipped to the United States to be col- 

 lected and handled under the supervision of the director of the imperial plant 

 quarantine Station at Yokohama, Japan. 



The director of the imperial plant quarantine Station will certify that the soil 

 used in packing is subsoil taken from two to three feet below the surface ; that 



