Februarj^, "14] ORTOX: PLANT QUARANTINE PROBLEMS 109 



PLANT QUARANTINE PROBLEMS 



"W. A. Ortox 



^[r. Chairman and Gentlemen : As ]\Ir. oMarlatt is to speak to you 

 of the work of the Federal. Horticultural Board for the past year, I will 

 not touch on that topic, but will discuss some problems that we have 

 in common for the future, in our great task of preventing the spread 

 of insects and plant diseases, and present some considerations that may 

 govern our viewpoint and policies toward quarantines and inspections. 



We have had to deal in the United States ^\'ith a succession of pests, 

 mostly invaders from foreign lands, and we still find our hands very 

 full with the inspection and police duties necessary for the control of 

 these unwelcome visitors. There is expended in this country a vast 

 sum for this type of work and, as the extermination of the parasites 

 now seems hopeless, we are faced with the necessity of continuing these 

 expenditures until the end of time. 



Regret is often expressed that a small fraction of this great sum 

 could not have been available to prevent the introduction of these 

 pests or to exterminate them before they had gained a foothold here. 

 Unquestionably monej' expended on scientific investigations of means 

 of preventing the introduction and spread of insects and diseases 

 yields much greater proportionate returns than that spent on inspec- 

 tion and control, and had the biologists of a generation ago known 

 what we. now know, and had they received a tithe of the support now 

 given by the state, many, perhaps most of these destructive insects and 

 diseases would have been excluded or controlled. 



The point I would emphasize today is that we are still far from the 

 end of our journey. By no means all of the dangerous insects and 

 diseases of the world are already with us. There exist in Europe 

 and especially in the Orient, many, many other parasites which would 

 doubtless prove veiy destructive under our conditions, and danger of 

 introducing them is ever present. Witness the spread of the chestnut 

 bark disease, and the fruit flies we. are attempting to turn back from 

 our Pacific and ^Mexican borders. 



To guard against these perils of the future is now our important 

 problem, a problem that has not yet been adequately solved, but which 

 we ai'e infinitely better prepared to cope with than were our predeces- 

 sors of the last generation, for 'we liave now the legal authority that 

 was formerly lacking, and we have this great organization of state 

 inspectors, backed by the entomologists and plant pathologists of the 

 Experiment Stations and colleges, and supported with relative liber- 

 ality by a people gro^Wng more and more awake to the imj)ortanee of 

 the work. 



