526 



AitTlTUAL REPORTS OF DEPAETMEXT OF AGPvICULTUKE. 



In answer to various criticisms and to correct certain misrepre- 

 sentations the board has issued several explanatory memoranda and 

 statements, the most important being a memorandum dated Feb- 

 ruary 1, 1919, giving a general discussion of the quarantine and 

 of the conditions which led to its promulgation. A further explana- 

 tory statement was issued by the Secretary of Agriculture as a result 

 of a conference March 1 with a committee representing the New 

 York Florists' Club, the Association of American Florists, and the 

 American Association of Nursery-men. The statement of the Secre- 

 tary is based on an impartial investigation which he had made of the 

 whole subject — the report of which fully supported the quarantine. 

 These two documents have been published in trade journals and 

 used liberalh' in correspondence with respect to the quarantine. 



The chairman of the board, on invitation, has attended during the 

 year important annual meetings of nurserymen and florists to discuss 

 Federal plant quarantines and particularly quarantine No. 37. These 

 meetings included the Pacific Coast Association of Nurserymen and 

 Ornamental Horticulturists, at Riverside, in May ; the National Asso- 

 ciation of Nurserymen, in Chicago, in July; and the Society of 

 American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists, in Detroit, in 

 August. The discussion at these meetings directly and through the 

 reports published in trade journals has brought a perhaps better un- 

 derstanding of the fundamental purposes underlying this quarantine 

 to the great body of persons interested throughout the United States. 



COUNTRY OF ORIGIN AND NATURE OF NURSERY-STOCK IMPORTATIONS. 



The following table gives the country of origin and the classes of 

 plants and seeds imported during the year ended June 30, 1919: 



Country of origin and nature of nurscry-stoclc importations. 



