April, '21] MONTGOMERY; FLORIDA PLANT QUARANTINE 195 



SWEET POTATO WEEVIL ERADICATION TESTS IN FLORIDA 



By J. E. Graf and B. L. Eoyden, Bureau Entomology 

 (Withdrawn for publication elsewhere) 



Chairman Sanders: The next paper is by J. H. Montgomery. 



PLANT QUARANTINE WORK AT FLORIDA POINTS 



By J. H. Montgomery, Gainesville, Fla. 



Plant quarantine inspection at ports of entry is a development of 

 comparatively recent date. The State of California was the pioneer 

 in this kind of work and 30 years ago recognized the necessity of not 

 only preventing the spread within the State of pests which were already 

 present but also of preventing the entry of pests from outside her 

 borders. In this work she has been preeminently successful and the 

 methods made use of by California have formed the basis for similar 

 work by other states and countries which have since seen the wisdom of 

 applying the principle expressed in the old proverb about the ounce of 

 prevention being better than the pound of cure. The Japanese Im.perial 

 Plant Quarantine Service is modeled after that of California. The 

 Federal Horticultural Board has recognized the efficiency of California's 

 system and the State Plant Board of Florida, when it contemplated 

 inaugurating a similar service, made use of California's long and success- 

 ful experience. So far as I am informed, California and Florida are the 

 only states which maintain a protective first line of defense in the form 

 of a maritime port inspection service. Arizona has a very effective 

 service at her border ports and other states have good interior inspec- 

 tion systems but it is not our purpose in this paper to discuss any phase 

 of plant quarantine work other than that done at maritim.e ports of 

 entry and with particular reference to Florida. 



Florida for many years, notwithstanding her tremendous horticultural 

 interests labored under the handicap of an inadequate horticultural 

 law. In fact, there was little or no law — and about the same am.ount of 

 money with which to apply the provisions of the law. It required 

 what was little less than a calamity, that is the introduction and spread 

 of citrus canker, to arouse the fruit growers of Florida to the dangers 

 to which they had been and were exposed. In 1915 the Legislature 

 passed what is known as the Florida Plant Act of 1915. This law has 

 since proven adequate in every respect and has been used as a model for 

 similar laws enacted by several other State Legislatures. I may have 



