8 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



pests which could not otherwise be excluded. This provision has 

 merely to be stated to indicate its importance. It is aimed espe- 

 cially at such dangers as the potato wart disease and the white pine 

 blister rust, which pathological experts assure us no inspection or 

 disinfection would reach. It would seldom apply to the regular 

 import trade in seedling nursery stock. 



As thus amended, the bill was introduced during the concluding 

 session of the last Congress and was favorably reported from the 

 agricultural committee of the House, but owing to legislative condi- 

 tions of this session of Congress, largely limiting the activities of this 

 body to special subjects, it was not possible to have the plant bill 

 brought up in the regular course and given adequate discussion. As 

 a result of the continuous and strong effort near the close of the session, 

 it was brought up ahead of its regular turn on the unanimous consent 

 calendar, which, however, practically allowed no opportunity for debate 

 or proper presentation of the urgency of the ineasure. Much of the 

 few minutes available was occupied by the chief opponent of the 

 measure, representing the views of the importing nurserymen, in a 

 violent denunciation of the measure and the men who were promoting 

 it, and when it came to a vote it failed to secure the necessary two- 

 thirds support to pass it under the suspension of the rules. This 

 result was evidently in no sense a test of the feeling of the House, 

 and undoubtedly if the bill had been fully understood it would have 

 received almost unanimous support. 



At the special session of the present Congress brought together at 

 the call of the president for a particular purpose, opportunity was 

 not afforded to push this legislation. Nevertheless, the subject was 

 again taken up with congressmen interested in the House and with 

 the chairman of the senate committee on agriculture, who was also 

 interested in pushing the bill; and at the suggestion of the latter, 

 with Mr. Mann, the minority leader on the floor of the House. The 

 result of various conferences led to the drawing up of an entirely new 

 bill by the solicitor of the Department of Agriculture, in conference 

 with the different bureaus interested and with several state officials 

 who could be brought together easily and particularly from states 

 perhaps most affected by import nursery trade. 



During the extra session this bill was introduced in both the Senate 

 and the House (S. 2870 and H. R. 12311). The chief point of diver- 

 gence from the bill of last year is that inspection of imported nursery 

 stock is to be left to the different states instead of being undertaken 

 by the federal government. This change was made because, on 

 investigation of the subject from a legal standpoint, it appeared that 

 the federal authority did not extend to imported goods after they had 



