The control and disinfection of imported seeds 
and plants, 
by sit DANIEL, MORRIS RK. C.M.@,>D.Se, Res, 
Late Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture in the West Indies. 
The object of this paper is to afford information respecting the 
successive steps that have been taken in the British West Indies to 
establish a system of control of imported seeds and plants, and pre- 
vent the introduction of insect and other pests (1). As these were 
possibly the first measures of the kind carried out in the tropics a 
brief account may prove of interest at this first Congress of Inter- 
national Entomology. The earlier efforts in the West Indies were 
made during the years 1884 to 1898, when all the colonies, with the 
exception-of British Guiana and Barbados, adopted laws for prohi- 
biting the importation of seeds and plants from certain countries. 
The main object in view was to prevent the introduction of the 
coffee-leaf disease (Hemileia) from the East Indies. None of the 
laws, however, provided for the inspection, fumigation or disinfec- 
tion of seeds or plants on arrival at their several destinations. 
In the period from 1898 to 1908 under the advice and with the 
assistance of the Imperial Department of Agriculture systematic 
efforts were made to secure as far as possible effective control of all 
(1) This summary is based on two articles by Mr. H. A. BaLLov, D. Sc., 
published in the West Indian Bulletin, vol. X, pp. 197-234 and pp. 349-372. 
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