February, '11] MARLATT: NATIONAL QUARANTINE 111 



The first general attempt to secure national legislation resulted from 

 the introduction of the San Jose scale into the eastern United States 

 and its general distribution on nursery stock. 



A convention was held in Washington in 1897, composed of accred- 

 ited delegates of horticultural societies, nurserymen's associations, 

 state agricultural boards, grange alliances, agricultural colleges, and 

 experiment stations, a large and re])resentative body of men. After 

 full discussion, a bill was drafted, which included both the inspection 

 of foreign nursery stock and of home-grown stock subject to interstate 

 shipment. While this measure received the endorsement of the con- 

 vention and was submitted to Congress, it was not heartily pushed, 

 and the different interests back of it were not fully agreed as to the 

 desirability of all the features of the measure, and it was ultimately 

 dropped, with the idea of replacing it by a more suitable bill. 



No agreement was immediately reached, but in December, 1899, a 

 bilP was introduced in the House by Mr. Wadsworth, of New York, 

 very similar in purport to the draft of 1897. This bill was later (Feb- 

 ruary, 1900) reported favorably from the Committee on Agriculture 

 by Mr. Haugen, of Iowa, with the unanimous recommendation of the 

 committee that it pass. In reporting this bill, Mr. Haugen gave a very 

 clear statement of the conditions in the matter of imported nursery 

 stock and also home-grown stock, and the arguments for the act, and 

 stated in conclusion that "in the opinion of the committee this bill is a 

 step in the right direction and worthy of early and favorable consid- 

 eration." 



Objections were made to this measure again, both by the nursery- 

 men, who feared that it might put obstacles in the way of their foreign 

 import business, and also on the part of certain state officials, who 

 were fearful that the portion relating to inspection of home-grown 

 stock would prove a duplication and unnecessary, and this measure 

 also failed of passage. 



The year following this same bill was introduced in the Senate with- 

 out change, except date, by Senator Perkins, of California (S. 5615, 

 56th Cong., 2d sess., Jan. 17, 1901), but its passage was not pushed. 



During the succeeding years, either by correspondence or by con- 

 ferences, an effort was made, particularly by the state entomologists 

 and state horticultural inspectors on the one side and the American 

 Association of Nurserymen on the other, to draft a bill for recommenda- 

 tion to Congress which would be mutually satisfactory. Finally, in 

 1906, a joint legislative committee was arranged for, representing the 

 Association of Official Horticultural Inspectors, the American Asso- 



^Fifty-sixth Congress, first session, H, R. 96, December 4, 1899. 



