REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 31 



A number of domestic quarantines also have been promulgated. 

 Under these quarantines many locally established plant diseases and 

 insect pests, most of them of recent origin, are being so controlled, 

 in cooperation with the States concerned, that their extermination 

 ultimately can be effected or, at least, their spread can be checked. 

 These quarantines relate principally to the gipsy and brown-tail 

 moths in New England; the Mediterranean fruit fly and the pink 

 bollworm in Hawaii; and diseases of sugar cane in Hawaii and 

 Porto Rico. 



In some instances plants and plant products are admitted only after 

 certification by the proper official in the originating country and the 

 issuance of permits by the department. They also are inspected 

 by State or Federal experts before being released in this country. 

 Such restrictions now apply to nursery stock of all kinds, fruits, 

 certain plant seeds, and potatoes, and foreign lint cotton. The re- 

 strictions on cotton are designed to prevent the entry of the pink 

 bollworm through cotton seeds which are found in all imported 

 cotton. The cotton is subjected to fumigation in a vacuum, under 

 supervision, by a new process devised by experts of the department. 



The value of this service to the Nation is apparent. Undoubtedly 

 many, if not all, of the plant diseases and pests mentioned now 

 would have full lodgment or wider distribution in this country if 

 the necessary action under the Plant Quarantine Act had not been 

 taken to prevent their entry or to check their spread. It would be 

 difficult to compute the resulting loss. 



COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. 



The second year's operation of the cooperative Agricultural Ex- 

 tension Act of May 8, 1914, has been attended with a steady de- 

 velopment of the nation-wide system of practical instruction in 

 agriculture and home economics discussed in my last two reports. 

 There has been a fuller coordination of the activities of the de- 

 partment with those of the agricultural colleges and more com- 

 plete development of the relations between the extension forces in 

 the States Relations Service and the scientific staffs in the various 

 bureaus of the department, resulting in the better dissemination of 

 approved scientific information. 



POTASH FROM KELP. 



In 1911 the Bureau of Soils was authorized by the Congress to 

 make a survey of the Nation's resources in fertilizer materials, par- 



