122 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 4 



by the testimony of other nurserymen before the House Committee 

 on Agriculture and letters on file in this bureau. Furthermore, the 

 thousands of nurserymen throughout the country have interests 

 exactly identical with those of the fruit growers, and are just as much 

 interested in having protection as are the former.^ 



The need of slich quarantine under this section will rarely be called 

 for on account of injurious insects, most of whicli can be detected by 

 inspection or destroj^ed by fumigation. There may, however, arise 

 insect dangers which will require the enforcement of this section, and 

 it is very desirable to have the provision in the measure to meet such 

 emergencies, as, for example, insects or their eggs or other stages 

 within plants or seeds which can not be seen and are beyond the reach 

 of fumigants. 



In the case of plant diseases, however, this section is of vital impor- 

 tance, and the experts of the Bureau of Plant Industry of this depart- 

 ment and plant pathologists generally unite in indorsing it. Pro- 

 fessor Galloway, chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, in a letter to 

 Chairman Scott, of the House Committee on Agriculture, dated April 

 29, 1910, says: 



"Section 8 is the most important part of this bill, so far as the con- 

 trol of fungous diseases is concerned; and I judge is much more impor- 

 tant in this relation than in relation to insect pests. For the present, 

 the legislation called for in this section would be directed only against 

 the diseases known as 'potato wart' and 'white pine blister rust.' So 

 far, potato wart is on this continent only in Newfoundland, and we 

 w'ant to quarantine against Newfoundland, in order particularly to 

 protect the potato-growing sections of New England. Inspection for 

 this disease is not practical, on account of the large quantities of pota- 

 toes which may be imported, making it physically impossible to 

 examine each potato ; and for the further reason that the early stages of 

 the disease are difficult to detect by inspection. 



"Ninety-five per cent, of all the blister rust of white pine now in this 

 country has come from one town in Germany; we want to be able to 

 quarantine against this town and other places where we know posi- 

 tively that the disease is or has recently been present. Inspection is 

 here, again, not practicable, because the disease incubates inside the 

 plant, and can seldom be detected until it breaks out on the surface 



^ The National Nurseryman of Maj% 1910, p. 581, in an article on the inspection 

 bill urges, editorially, even a broader application of the principle involved in section 

 8, namely, that "the United States Entomologist . . . should have such author- 

 ity as will permit him to exclude importations from nurseries or regions known to 

 be infested with injurious insect pests or from nurseries flagrantly careless with 

 reference to these enemies." 



