650 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



In general, the Federal powers granted in this bill relate to the 

 establishment, whvu desirable, of loreigTi and domestic quarantine; 

 the issuance of permits for importations; the requirement of foreign 

 certification as to freedom from disease or insect infestation; and 

 the distribution to the several State officials by the Department of 

 Agriculture of exact information in regard to origin and arrival and 

 destination of all importations. To the inspectors of the several 

 States is left the responsibility for inspection and disinfection of 

 imported stock and the cleaning up and disinfection of local 

 quarantined districts. 



Under this bill as much protection can be had as would come from 

 any legislation providing for inspection at point of destination. It 

 will enable quarantine to be declared against such immediate dangers 

 as the Mediterranean fruit-fly, the potato-wart disease, and the 

 white-pine blister rust. The last two dangers Avere referred to in 

 some detail in my last annual report. The Mediterranean fruit-fly 

 is a new risk and a most serious one. This insect, which has a long 

 record of excessive damage to all sorts of fruits and vegetables in 

 a good many foreign countries, has recently become established in 

 the HaAvaiian Islands and unless quarantined against is certain to be 

 brought in from those islands or from other quarters of the world 

 where it has gained a foothold. It is, perhaps, a more serious fruit 

 pest than any now occurring on this continent. Its larvjp, or mag- 

 gots, infest all sorts of fruits and many vegetables, and the presence 

 of these in fruit can not be detennined except by cutting the fruit 

 open, unless the destruction has gone to such a stage that putrefaction' 

 has set in. Its introduction would be most disastrous to the citrus 

 and deciduous fruit interests of the southern Pacific coast and 

 throughout our Southern States. It is a grave danger not only to 

 all subtropical fruits and vegetables, but to peaches and melons and 

 other similar crops now grown most profitably over a large section 

 of the South. 



The imminence of this danger has already led Congress to make an 

 appropruition of $35,000 to be expended in an attempt to control this 

 fly in the Hawaiian Islands, and thus limit to some extent the likeli- 

 hood of its reaching the United States through California. Its ex- 

 termination in the Hawaiian Islands is recognized as absolutely out 

 of the question, and the only effective safeguard is a quarantine which 

 will exclude fruits or vegetables likely to carry the insect. 



The need, therefore, of a Federal plant-quarantine law is much 

 gi-eater than ever, and delay in securing it may result in enormous 

 and continuing damage to the fruit interests of this country. 



In the absence of this legislation this bureau has proceeded along 

 the lines reported in previous years, securing as complete records as 

 possible by voluntary cooperation of railroads and customs officials. 

 of imported plant stock and tran'^mitting the information relating 

 to arrival and destination of the imported stock to the proper State 

 officials with the hope that the latter would inspect and safeguard 

 the entry of such goods. As previously pointed out, there is no 

 assurance that the records thus obtained are complete, and there is 

 very great probability that injurious pests which we know are com- 

 ing in may gain foothold at any time. Importation of cheap and 

 often refuse stock by department and 5-and-lO-cent stores has con- 



