THE ANTI-PEST CONVENTION. 16& 



THE ANTI-PEST CONVENTION. 



HELD IN WASHINGTON, D. C. MARCH 5, 1897. 

 PROB. OTTO LUGGER, 

 STATE AGRI. COLLEGE, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



About ninety delegates were present, besides a number of others 

 not exactly delegates or entitled as such to vote. The chairman, 

 Mr. E. H. Cushman, called the meeting to order. In the beginning 

 the most conflicting opinions were expressed, and it appeared as 

 if order could not coine out of such a chaos. At last a bill, drawn 

 up by Dr. L. O. Howard, entomologist of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, and based upon some laws passed against the introduction, 

 etc., of diseased cattle, was utilized as a base of operation. Seven 

 delegates were selected as a committee to draft a law; these dele- 

 gates were selected in such a manner that all interests were repre- 

 sented; that, is the fruit-growers and nurserymen were equally well 

 represented. Care was also taken that the members of this commit- 

 tee had had some experience with the San Jose scale. The chairman 

 of this committee was Prof.Wm.E.Alwood,ofVa., and no better choice 

 could have been made, as he had very conservative views about 

 these things and had had also considerable experience with the scale, 

 and best of all he had good tact. Under his guidance the conflict- 

 ing ideas were mollified and modified, and after a long session — 

 nearly twenty hours — the committee agreed upon a bill and reported 

 the same to the convention. In this convention, every paragraph 

 of the proposed law was fully discussed, and the whole report was 

 adopted with but slight modifications. 



The meeting was a very successful and hartnonious one. The 

 above committee was made a permanent one, so that it could have 

 the law put in legal form and introduce it. A small fee of $1.00 was 

 collected from the delegates to pay fee expenses. Copies of the 

 laws and a report of the proceedings will be printed and mailed to 

 the various societies interested in such laws. 



The nurserymen, who were present in large numbers, acted with 

 remarkable fairness, and all insisted that such a law was very im- 

 portant and that it would cost but little to have it well enforced. 

 The details of the execution had to be left largely with the secretary 

 of agriculture, a very proper thing. 



(Prof. Lugger attended this convention as a representative of our 

 society and the experiment station. This subject is of so much 

 ituportance and so much interest is being taken in it at the present 

 juncture in Minnesota that it seems wise to publish the proposed 

 national law referred to above. Clauses relating to penaltj- are ex- 

 cluded.— Sec'Y.) 



BE IT ENACTED BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

 OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN CO-VGRESS ASSEMBLED. 



Section 1. That the secretary of agriculture be and he is hereby 

 authorized at the expense of the owner or owners to place and retain 

 in quarantine all trees, plants, buds, cuttings, grafts, scions, nursery 

 stock and fruits, imported into the United States at such ports as 



