250 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of which should constitute a crime, early in the third session of the 

 Fifty-eighth Congress the Secretary recommended the enactment of 

 a more comprehensive law which would give him the power, after 

 ascertainment of the fact, to quarantine any State or Territory or 

 portion thereof where contagious, infectious, or communicable live- 

 stock diseases should be found to exist, in order that these diseases 

 might not be spread through the medium of live stock which them- 

 selves might not be diseased. This recommendation resulted in the 

 passage of the act of March 3, 1905, which is the act under which 

 an epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in 1908-9 was restricted to 

 the localities in which it occurred until its successful eradication. 



As a result of the administration of these acts the department has 

 been able, during the 16 years covered by this report, to extirpate 

 some of the most virulent live-stock diseases in large sections of the 

 United States, with a consequent lifting of the Federal and State 

 quarantine over substantial areas. This act was sustained as con- 

 stitutional by the District Court of the United States for the Western 

 District of Kentucky in December, 1908. 



Between July 1, 1906, and June 30, 1912, 454 cases under the fore- 

 going acts have been reported to the Attorney General, and of this 

 number 160 cases have resulted in convictions and the imposition of 

 fines amounting to $16,375. 



THE LACEY ACT. 



The act of May 25, 1900, commonly known as the Lacey Act, was 

 passed upon the recommendation of this department to meet two 

 distinct evils: (1) The importation into the United States of animals 

 and birds which were ascertained by the department to be destructive 

 to crops and poultry, and (2) commerce between the States in game 

 killed in violation of State laws. Under this act importation into 

 the United States of the destructive fruit bats, mongooses, and other 

 predatory species has been prevented, and impetus has been given 

 to legislation in the several States for the protection both of game 

 and nongame birds and mammals. In 1909 the department having 

 found through its efforts to enforce this act that it could not be 

 given the effective operation which was plainly intended by Congress 

 until a provision was added prohibiting the shipment from one State 

 to another of game shipped in violation of local law, as well as game 

 killed in violation of local law, recommendation was made that, in the 

 codification of the act for purposes of the Penal Code, an amendment 

 be inserted to cover shipment of game in violation of State laws, as 

 well as the shipment of game killed in violation of local laws. Evi- 

 dence to establish the unlawful killing of game was difficult to pro- 



