FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



After all my hard work with these officials in Europe dur- 

 ing June and July of 1912, I received, early in August, in 

 London, a cablegram from the Hon. James Wilson, then United 

 States Secretary of Agriculture, stating that a competent quar- 

 antine bill had just passed Congress and had been signed by 

 the President. Thus my summer's work had been entirely 

 unnecessary, although my interviews with different people had 

 been extremely interesting, and of much educational value. 



The individual credit for this legislation on the part of the 

 United States is due almost wholly to my then first-assistant and 

 ultimate successor in office, Dr. C. L. Marlatt, who was promptly 

 made the chairman of the Federal Horticultural Board, and 

 who administered its affairs with great tact and firmness. 



All this is a legitimate part of the story of an entomologist, 

 although, as a matter of fact, all of these quarantine efforts 

 were directed not only against injurious insects but against 

 plant diseases. Before leaving this subject, it may be well to 

 mention briefly the International Conference of Economic En- 

 tomologists and Phytopathologists, held in Wageningen in Hol- 

 land in 1923. I strongly suspect that this conference was called 

 by the Dutch people for the purpose of strengthening the inter- 

 national feeling on the subject of the so-called Quarantine No. 

 37, then recendy promulgated by the United States government. 

 This restricted the importation into the United States of all 

 bulbs, except under certain conditions, and I am inclined to 

 think that I was selected as Honorary Chairman of the Con- 

 ference with the idea that I might be brought to favor its aim. 

 But this of course may not have been the case. The conference !| 



was largely attended by men from different countries, and there 

 was a strong delegation of Americans, none of them, however, 

 connected in any way with the Federal Horticultural Board. 

 There were visits to large bulb-growing districts, and luncheons 



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