212 Twenty-Second Annual Report of the 



CONCLUSION 



It is the purpose of the two departments of agriculture to first demon- 

 strate that the variety can and has been improved; to foster the growing, 

 production and marketing; and, thereafter, when deemed proper, to provide 

 a separate form of certificate issue for the Bliss, thus bringing it ultimately 

 under the proposed provisions for seed certification with a separate standard 

 of its own. 



A Report on the Quarantine of Potatoes for Powdery Scab in the Coun- 

 ties of Fraxklix and Clinton From Febraury 1, 1915, to July 15, 1915. 



H. C. SANDS, Inspector-in-Charge. 



IXTRODUCTION 



As a sequel to the report on the quarantine of potatoes for powdery scab 

 in New York, which was submitted January 31, 1915, the following is pre- 

 sented intending to complete the discussion of the activity that the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has extended in the field. Included are statistics and 

 tables drawn therefrom to illustrate more clearly the ground covered. 



A CHANGE IN THE METHOD AND MANNER OF INSPECTION BECOMES DESIRABLE 



The practice, as provided by the original regulations, of providing inspec- 

 tion at all points of origin, led, in some cases, to considerable delay, with 

 consequent complaints by the shippers. The chief factor for the change 

 ultimately discussed and put into effect April 16, 1915, was the utter irre- 

 sponsibility of the shipper, the burden of the scab elimination from ship- 

 ments being thus thrown upon the inspector. Further, inspectors could not 

 be furnished at a moment's notice, and this all parties concerned seemed to 

 be unreasonable in demanding. The regulations provided for three days' 

 notice, but when shippers were compelled to wait the three days, serious com- 

 plaint arose, perhaps not without some justification. Inconvenient train 

 schedules, inaccessibility of the point, and the fact that loading in freezing 

 weather necessarily must proceed without interruption, added to the difficul- 

 ties of enforcing the rulings. 



As already mentioned, the irresponsibility of the shipper was the large 

 concluding factor for the change. In actual practice it worked as follows: 

 At Cherubusco an inspector was not regularly stationed because of no desir- 

 able accommodations, and because stretches of from three to four days at a 

 time occurred, during which no loading was done. Consequently this station 

 was handled from Malone by assignment. The train on which an inspector 

 traveled arrived from Malone at 9 a. m. In the meantime a car had been 

 set the previous night and teams were waiting to load into it by 7 a. m. In 

 •'old weather, wagons could not stand exposed without the stock becoming 

 frozen, so that permission to start loading without the presence of an inspec- 

 tor necessarily had to be given. Although the loaders were perfectly ac- 

 quainted with the identification of powdery scab, little effort was exerted to 

 remove it, so that oftentimes it was necessary for the inspector, upon his 

 arrival, to order the whole of the loading resorted. The idea of the shipper 

 seemed to be to see how much the inspector would allow to be included. 



