no 



the fungus has developed, or the insect has hatched from 

 the egg and it is much easier to detect the enemy. 



In establishing control of imported plants we meet, however, 

 with the difficulty that almost every country has its own system 

 of controlling the imports and a great number of very different 

 laws and regulations are met with. The way in which these 

 laws are carried out are also different, but on this point, as well 

 as on the effect of the laws, very little information is published. 



It would be useful if there were more exchange of opinions 

 about these questions between the phytopathologists in different 

 countries, and, without making a definite proposal to the Con- 

 gress, I should like to emphasize the' desirability of such an 

 interchange of opinions between the competent men in different 

 countries as to the way in which the laws against the intro- 

 duction of disease are carried out and as to the effect of these 

 laws. 



Professor P. CARMODY (Director of Agriculture, Trinidad) : 

 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen I think that the subject which 

 has been introduced so ably by Mr. Rogers is one which can 

 be suitably dealt with at this Congress. We have this advan- 

 tage, that we are able to obtain personal knowledge of each 

 other at these Congresses, and that by this means we are able 

 to ascertain what is being done in other countries in connection 

 with plant diseases. The chief trouble, I think, which con- 

 fronts anyone importing plants from any other country is to 

 know what are the conditions and the regulations in that 

 country, and to know how they deal there with plant diseases, 

 or whether they are entirely ignorant of them. That is the 

 one question, I think, that precedes every other. Let me 

 assume, for example, that I want to import sugar canes into 

 Trinidad. If I sent to my friend, Dr. van Hall, for these sugar 

 canes, and he sent me a certificate that there was no disease 

 in the district from which these canes were taken, and that 

 they suffered from no special diseases of the sugar cane, I 

 should not have the slightest hesitation in admitting the.se into 

 our colony, perhaps entirely without fumigation, although 

 sometimes we may protect ourselves by that in certain cases. 

 But if the Director of Agriculture in some little-known part of 

 the world were to do the same, and sent me a certificate similar 

 to the one supplied by Dr. van Hall, I should want to know 

 first of all whether he was competent to give a certificate, or 

 whether any preventive measures taken at the place of origin 

 were efficient. After attending these Congresses and ex- 

 changing subsequently, as we do, our publications not only 

 among the Departments of Agriculture in the British Empire, 

 but very largely also outside in fact, with almost all the 

 Departments of Agriculture throughout the world we are 



