PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 33 



fruit, growth, or infected tree growth, and if such examinations prove 

 the infected trees perniciously infected, it is made the duty of the owner 

 to at once disinfect or destroy the same. 



In the legislation, to which I refer, a board of commissioners, usually 

 composed of the State entomologist, and other persons connected with 

 the Agricultural Bureau, are authorized to inspect the property alleged 

 to be infected with any of the diseases designated by the statutes as con- 

 tagious, and if such disease is found to exist, they are authorized to 

 destroy the property; and in most of the statutes, it is made a mis- 

 demeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, for the owner of any 

 such property to decline or fail to carry out the rules and regulations 

 made by said commissioners. 



There can be no possible doubt of the power of the State Legislature 

 to deal with the subject so as to prevent the shipment of any property 

 into this State from which it can be reasonably apprehended that the 

 boll wevil might be brought into our midst; and, in addition, to provide 

 such rules and regulations as would authorize the eradication of the 

 pest, if found in our midst, by such methods as the wisdom of the 

 Board, to which this matter should be referred, should deem advisable. 



In matters of this character, many of our people are disposed to rely 

 too much on the aid of the Federal Government, which possesses little 

 or no jurisdiction in the premises. 



The power to legislate on the subject of the prevention of the spread 

 of the boll weevil into our State is but the exercise of the police 

 power of the State, and this power cannot be exercised within the 

 limits of the State by the Congress of the United States. The power 

 of enacting laws upon the subject resides solely and exclusively in the 

 States. It is true that the general government, under its power to 

 regulate commerce, could enact laws quarantining the shipment of ar- 

 ticles of merchandise into our State, which, in the opinion of the 

 authorities, would be dangerous, yet this would be the limitation of 

 the power of the Federal Government; and the additional authority 

 to prevent the spread of such seriously injurious insects, or to exterminate 

 the same by the destruction of the property so affected, would neces- 

 sarily have to emanate from the State authorities. 



The national government has authority to provide rules and regu- 

 lations governing the importation of property from foreign countries, 

 and all which become subjects of interstate commerce or exportation, 

 and this convention should urge immediate action by it on this sub- 

 ject. It is necessary to have a uniform national law on the subject, 

 so as to prevent the introduction of the boll weevil into the other 

 cotton States of the Union from the State of Texas and the Republic 

 of Mexico. 



In the face of the acknowledged fact that fully one-half of the prin- 



