372 ANNUAL REPORTS OP DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



COOPERATION WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS. 



The State Department and the Treasury Department have con- 

 tinued their hearty cooperation in the enforcement of the foreign quar- 

 antines, while the Post Office Department has rendered efficient service 

 in the enforcement of both the foreign and domestic quarantines. 



While the orders of the Post Office Department, issued at the 

 request of this department, prohibiting the importation of nursery 

 stock and cotton by mail, have been given w r ide publicity and are 

 now quite generally observed, occasional shipments of nursery stock 

 and cotton are still sent to this country by mail, only to be promptly 

 returned by the postal officials to the point of origin. 



TERMINAL INSPECTION OF INTERSTATE MAIL SHIPMENTS OF PLANTS AND PLANT 



PRODUCTS. 



During the year the States of Arizona and Montana availed them- 

 selves of the provisions of the act of March 4, 1915, by providing for 

 terminal inspection of mail shipments of plants and plant products 

 originating in other States. California made similar provision 

 last year. All shipments by mail to these States of florists' stock, 

 trees, shrubs, vines, cuttings, grafts, scions, buds, fruit pits 

 and other seeds of fruit and ornamental trees or shrubs, and 

 other plants or plant products in the raw or unmanufactured 

 state, except vegetable and flower seeds, are now subject to inspec- 

 tion by State officials before delivery to the addressee. All plants 

 and plant products shipped under the certification of the Federal 

 Horticultural Board, however, are exempted from such inspection. 



REVIEW OF THE WORK OF THE YEAR. 



NEW PLANT QUARANTINES. 



The domestic and foreign quarantines described below are addi- 

 tional or supplementary to the quarantines previously established. 



FOREIGN QUARANTINES. 



White-pine blister rust quarantine. — Amendment 1 to Quar- 

 antine No. 7, promulgated February 29, 1916, forbids the importa- 

 tion into the United States from the Dominion of Canada and New- 

 foundland of all five-leafed pines and all species and varieties of the 

 genera Ribes (currants) and Grossularia (gooseberries), known to be 

 intermediate host plants, to prevent the further introduction into the 

 United States of the white-pine blister rust. 



Indian corn. — Quarantine No. 24, promulgated April 29, 1916, 

 effective on and after July 1, 1916, amends and supersedes Quaran- 

 tine No. 21, promulgated March 8, 1915, and prohibits the importa- 

 tion into the United States in the raw or unmanufactured state from 

 Southeastern Asia (including India, Siam, Indo-China, and China), 

 Malayan Archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, Philippine 

 Islands, Formosa, Japan, and adjacent islands, of seed and all other 

 portions of Indian corn or maize (Zea mays L.), and the closely related 

 plants, including all species of teosinte (EucMaena), Job's tears 

 (Coix), Polytoca, ChionacJtne, and Sclerachne, to prevent the intro- 

 duction into the United States of certain, very serious corn diseases. 

 One of these diseases, Peronospora maydis, is, so far as known, limited 

 to maize. It attacks the young plants, causing great damage, in 

 some parts of Java. The disease caused by Sderospora sacchari, first 

 described from Formosa but known to occur also m the Fiji Islands 



