6 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



inasmuch as Professor Bruner is not here, and that the matter be 

 turned over to a new committee, who can take this letter regarding 

 the proposed plan and report at the last session of this meeting. 



It was moved and carried, that such a committee be appointed 

 by the Chair. 



President F. L. Washburn: We will now listen to the report of 

 the Committee on Legislation by Mr. Symons. 



T. B. Symons: Mr. President and Members of the Association, I 

 would like to say that I have not been able to see Professor Worsham, 

 though I submitted a copy of my report to him, but have not received 

 a reply. The other member of the committee. Dr. Smith, to whom 

 I submitted part of the report, replied and agreed to the same, as 

 follows : 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION 



Mr. President and Members of the Association: 



Your committee submits a report of progress together with a brief history of the 

 legislation governing the importation of foreign nursery stock and other plants 

 during the past year. 



The activities of this committee began with the so-called Simmons bill of the last 

 session of Congress. After elaborate hearings, in 1910, this bill was favorably 

 reported from the committee on agriculture to the House (January, 1911). Owing 

 to the conditions of this concluding session it was impossible to bring it up in its 

 regular com\se and secure for it a full discussion. Lender suspension of the rules it 

 came up for a 20-minute consideration on nearly the closing day of the session, and 

 the measure failed to secure the necessary two-thirds vote to pass it under suspension 

 of the rules. 



As a result of conferences with the legal and other officers of the Department of 

 Agriculture and with several important leaders in Congress, an entirely new biU was 

 drawn up by the Department of Agriculture and submitted to members of this 

 committee and a number of State inspectors, entomologists and pathologists, and was 

 approved by them. This new measure was introduced in both houses of Congress 

 at the special session called by the President, and is the bill now before Congress. 

 There is every reason to hope that it will become a law. It will be subject to amend- 

 ment, and certain minor changes have aheady been suggested in the measure by the 

 Department of Agriculture. 



In the early spring, when it appeared that the bill would be brought up in the 

 House, your committee had printed a statement setting forth the necessity for 

 .such legislation, for distribution to the agricultural press of the country, and also 

 procm-ed one thousand copies of a statement of facts regarding the history of such 

 legislation, printed in the Journ.a.l of Economic Entomology, and one thousand 

 copies of the favorable report of the Agricultural Committee. It was intended to 

 send these articles together with the committee's statement to all organizations and 

 parties whose influence would aid in securing the passage of the bill. On account of 

 the substitution of an entirely new bill before the present Congress, this matter was 

 not sent out. 



Yoiu- committee has now sent out in place of this matter another statement 

 together with a circular issued from the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, giving 



