216 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 10 



THE WEAKNESS OF OUR PRESENT SYSTEM OF INSPECTION 

 WITH REGARD TO FOREIGN SHIPMENTS 



By W. J. ScHOENE, Blacksburg, Va. 



These remarks are not intended to apply to conditions in any one 

 state, but rather to the whole country, and to refer more especially to 

 past events and future happenings. Owing to the peculiar dual form 

 of our government, each state has authority, so far as injurious pests 

 are concerned, to regulate or not to regulate its internal affairs in any 

 way its citizens may desire; and entomologists, who have been laboring 

 for the development of our inspection work and the enactment of crop 

 pest legislation, have always had this fact to contend with; for, as we 

 are fully aware, state lines do not function as barriers to the spread of 

 injurious pests. The policy of one state has frequently been radically 

 different from its neighbor. One state may promulgate stringent rules 

 to control or to suppress an injurious pest, while other states may 

 either refuse to act or else adopt the policy of letting nature take its 

 course. The result of such policy, so far as the spread of injurious 

 pests are concerned, is obvious. 



As a specific instance of the condition just mentioned, there are cer- 

 tain states, which some years ago were believed to be free of San Jos6 

 scale, and which provided themselves with adequate inspection ma- 

 chinery to protect their fruit industry; while in other states in which the 

 presence of this insect was a matter of common knowledge, only scant 

 appropriations were made for inspection work; or, as has happened, the 

 best horticultural authorities actually opposed inspection legislation. 



As history repeats itself, so the history of the spread of the San 

 Jose scale and of the attending diversity of laws will be repeated, in 

 modified form, with the appearance of each important pest. Take, for 

 instance, the white pine blister rust, authorities are by no means agreed 

 either as to the best means of handling the problem or what the situa- 

 tion demands. 



In considering the inspection of foreign shipments of plants, which is 

 certainly the most important problem confronting American ento- 

 mologists today, we find some diversity of opinion. This is especially 

 true when we compare the ideas of the importer or the buyer with those 

 held by some of our entomologists. The importer, as weh as the buyer, 

 looks upon the trade in foreign stocks as an ordinary commercial prop- 

 osition and a large business has been b^ilt up in this class of goods 

 because ornamental and fruit stocks can be produced cheaper, and per- 

 haps better, abroad. This traffic is being continued, in spite of the 

 protest of a few entomologists, although the United States is the only 

 great nation that opens its doors to almost unlimited importations of 



