1920 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 41 



inent of cherry trees made as a gift of the City of Tokio of Japan to the City 

 of Washington. The first lot was of large sized trees and so seriously infested with 

 various insects that the trees were hurned. A second sending was later made of 

 young trees and these were apparently in a fairly healthy condition and at least 

 had been so pruned back that any evidences of the work of this insect had been 

 entirely removed. Incidentally, it may he sard that it is a very difficult matter 

 to detect an insect about which you know nothing and which you are not antici- 

 pating. The inspector does not know where to look for it. In the case of this 

 pest, even with full knowledge of its habits, it is a very difficult insect to detect 

 by inspection, so carefully concealed is it in its hibernating situation. This in- 

 festation was not discovered at the time and the trees were planted in Washington's 

 Eiverside Park. The local infestation of the District of Columbia and adjacent 

 Maryland and Virginia has undoubtedly originated from this importation of 

 flowering Japanese cherries. The incident illustrates the futility of inspection, 

 even when carefully conducted, as a means of detecting unknown or unfamiliar 

 pests and is one of the strong arguments for the more radical quarantine action 

 which the Board has recently taken in respect to all such ornamental and nursery 

 stock. 



Another pest recently imported is the so-called Japanese beetle. Tt wa< in- 

 troduced apparently about eight years ago on iris stock imported by the Dreer 

 nurseries. It now has a very strong foothold in a comparatively small area in New 

 Jersey opposite Philadelphia. This insect lives nine months of the year in the 

 ground out of sight, is a strong flier, feeds miscellaneously on all sorts of vegetation, 

 and there is therefore very little likelihood that it can ever be exterminated. By 

 federal and state appropriation, however, a strong effort is being made to control 

 this insect and to demonstrate the possibilities of exterminating it if such possi- 

 bilities exist. 



One of the last, and perhaps one of the worst, plant pests that has turned 

 up in this country is the "take-all" disease of wheat which has recently been 

 determined in a few fields in southern Illinois and in a similarly small area in 

 Indiana. War conditions and food shortage led to a movement looking to the 

 importation of wheat from Australia into the United States to replace American- 

 grown wheat which was being exported to meet European needs. A knowledge 

 of the risk from such Australian wheat led the Board to declare a federal quarantine 

 and to place such restrictions as to disinfection and use of such wheat as to safe- 

 guard its entry. While these steps were in progress this disease was discovered 

 in a small area in southern Illinois and later in a small area in Indiana. 

 The method of entry of this disease is unknown and nothing has been found 

 to indicate that it came with any wheat imported from Australia for com- 

 mercial purposes. It is probable that its entry was due to some experimental 

 importation of Australian wheat. Very energetic action was undertaken in co- 

 operation with the two states concerned to stamp out the disease in the infected 

 areas, including the prohibition of the further growth of wheat in such areas 

 and the disinfection of the grain and the burning of infected straw and stubble. 



These seven or eight quarantine subjects which I have mentioned, together 

 with the nurser}- stock quarantine, are the big items of work which tlie Federal 

 Horticultural Board has under way at the present time. 



I will close with, a brief discussion of tlie nursery stock, seed and plant quaran- 

 tine, a subject which has perhaps as great interest for you as any of these others 

 and is one of the oldest of our lines of work. This qiiarantine has been adminis- 



4 E.S. 



