136 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. & 



land in relation to the gipsy and brown-tail moth quarantine. An 

 order has been issued permitting postmasters to notify the proper 

 state officials of the arrival and delivery of nursery stock, so that such 

 state officials may, if they see fit, make examination of nursery stock 

 thus imported through the mails. This last has been one of the loop- 

 holes which was most difficult to cover on account of the theory of 

 the inviolability of mail matter. All of these orders of the Post 

 Office Department are given in an appendix to this report. 



Evasions and Violations of the Law 



During the first few months of the enforcement of the Federal Plant 

 Quarantine Act a number of forms of violations or evasions of tlie la^ 

 have come to our notice. Some of these have been due to ignorance, 

 and some possibly have been malicious. In the main, however, it 

 should be stated that the nurserymen and brokers have shown a keen 

 desire to comply with the law and regulations. Many of the discrep- 

 ancies noted below will probably be prevented as a result of the amend- 

 ments now made to the regulations and the new form of reporting 

 provided for. The following items under this head may be enumer- 

 ated: 



1. Entry by Customs Officials and Importers in Ignorance 

 OF THE Law. — A few instances of this kind have come to our notice, 

 but the amount of such violations is negligible. 



The smaller or interior customs offices, which may receive imported 

 nursery stock very rarely, may be a little difficult to keep up to the 

 full standard of the enforcement of the Act and regulations. No 

 difficulty will probably be experienced in any of the twenty-five or 

 thirty principal customs ports after the regulations hkve once been 

 assimilated. 



2. Entry of Nursery Stock without Proper Markings or 

 Certification.- — A good many violations of this kind have come 

 to our notice, most of them probably the result of ignorance of the law. 

 The Department of Agriculture has no means of determining as to 

 whether or not the regulations as to marking and certification have 

 been complied with, except through the reports received from state 

 inspectors, and perhaps occasional examination of goods as they are 

 landed at one port or another. In the matter of certification, under the 

 regulation to take effect July 1, 1913, the parent certificate of inspection 

 must accompany the invoice, and becomes a necessary paper of entry. 

 After the date mentioned therefore goods without certification cannot 

 be entered, and any failure in this regard will naturally be brought to 

 the attention of this department by the collector of customs. 



