WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 135 



In an address entitled " Injurious Insects and Commerce," deliv- 

 ered before the Peninsula Horticultural Society at Dover, Delaware, 

 January n, 1895,* I made a plea for the extension of such legisla- 

 tion, terming it " The Crying Need of the Present Time," pointing 

 out especially the unprotected Mexican border and stating that work 

 had been begun by the Federal Department of Agriculture to study 

 the possibilities of imported pests from Mexico. The following year 

 (February 15, 1896) I gave an address before the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, urging the adoption of general legislation. 



Carrying the idea further, I prepared in 1897 a rather lengthy 

 article entitled " Danger of Importing Insect Pests," which was pub- 

 lished in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for that 

 vear, accompanied by illustrations of a number of the dangerous 

 insect pests of foreign countries that at any time, through commerce, 

 were possible assisted immigrants. 



During 1896 I had been corresponding with F. M. Webster, then 

 Entomologist of the Ohio Experiment Station at Wooster, Ohio, who 

 induced the Ohio State Horticultural Society to adopt resolutions 

 calling for a " national convention for the suppression of insect pests 

 and plant diseases by legislation." This convention was held March 

 5 and 6, 1897, at Washington. It was attended by representatives of 

 State agricultural and horticultural societies, State granges, agricul- 

 tural colleges and experiment stations, and experts from the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. At this convention four papers 

 were read — one by myself, entitled " The Desirability of an Inspection 

 System against Foreign Insects " ; another by Dr. B. T. Galloway, 

 of the Department of Agriculture, entitled " Plant Diseases and the 

 Possibility of Lessening their Spread by Legislation " ; a third by 

 B. F. Lelong, of California, entitled " The Inspection of Trees, 

 Plants, Fruits, etc., as Conducted under the Laws in California " ; 

 and a fourth by Gerald McCarthy, of North Carolina, entitled " Crop 

 Pests and Their Repression by Law." At this convention a bill was 

 drafted and discussed. . I had a stenographic report made of the dis- 

 cussion, which was printed in the proceedings of the convention which 

 were published as a special unnumbered bulletin by the Department 

 of Agriculture. In the discussion, the nurserymen, led by W. C. 

 Barry, voiced several objections to the bill submitted. This was the 

 first indication of the opposition to such legislation from the nursery- 

 men and this opposition accumulated force from that time on for a 

 number of years. 



' Insect Life, vol. 6, pp. 332-338, March, 1895 



