1650 



INSPECTION 



INSPECTION 



from injurious potato diseases and insect pests and 

 under permit and prior foreign inspection and certifica- 

 tion. All such imported potatoes are subject to a 

 second inspection by a federal inspector on their arrival 

 in this country. 



The order governing the admission of the avocado 

 or alligator pear under restriction was issued February 

 27, 1914. These two orders are supplemental to the 

 quarantine orders described above in relation to the 

 potato and to avocada seed. 



The federal horticultural board. 



The act provides (section 12) that for the purpose of 

 carrying out its provisions there shall be appointed by 

 the Secretary of Agriculture from existing bureaus and 

 offices in the Department of Agriculture, including 

 the Bureau of Entomology, the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try, and the Forest Service, a Federal Horticultural 

 Board consisting of five members, of whom not more 

 than two shall be appointed from any one bureau or 

 office, and who shall serve without additional compen- 

 sation. 



State legislation. 



The state of California for the last twenty years 

 has enforced a quarantine at the port of San Francisco, 

 and has had quarantine and other control legislation 

 which has furnished protection to the state of untold 

 value, and to a less degree to the remainder of the 

 United States. A few other states have had minor plant- 

 legislation, but the San Jose scale outbreak in the East 

 in the early nineties, already referred to, was the incit- 

 ing cause of plant-legislation in nearly every state of 

 the Union. This legislation, chiefly in relation to 

 domestic nursery stock, lacks uniformity, and thus 

 entails unnecessary difficulty to dealers in nursery and 

 other plant stock. An effort has been under way for 

 several years to devise, for general adoption, a uniform 

 nursery and plant act, and it seems now possible that 

 uniform legislation may eventually be secured. A bill 

 has been drafted by J. G. Sanders, State Entomologist 

 of Wisconsin, as Chairman of a Committee on Uniform 

 State Legislation of the American Association of Horti- 

 cultural Inspectors, and this bill has been approved by 

 this association, representing the different states and 

 by the National Nurserymen's Association. It will 

 probably be many years, however, before it is generally 

 substituted for present state legislation on this subject. 



Space at disposal does not permit of a full analysis 

 of the plant legislation of the different states. This legis- 

 lation has been well summarized in Circular No. 103 

 of the Department of Agriculture of the state of New 

 York. Shippers of nursery stock should first inquire 

 as to legislation, which may vary from year to year, of 

 any state to which goods are to be sent. Many of the 

 states also require the taking out of licenses, and in 

 some states imported nursery stock must be reexamined 

 by local state inspectors before it can be liberated. 



Plant legislation in Canada. 



The Canadian legislation to control the entry of 

 injurious insect pests and plantniiseases has much the 

 same history as the similar legislation in the United 

 States and the same inciting causes. The San Jos6 

 scale excitement in the United States led in 1898 to the 

 passage by Canada of the San Jose" Scale Act which 

 prohibited the importation of nursery stock from all 

 countries in which this scale insect occurred. Later 

 (1901) this prohibition was removed and nursery stock 

 from countries in which the scale occurred was allowed 

 to enter, subject to fumigation with hydrocyanic-acid 

 gas, the ports of entry and the time of the year when 

 such entry could be made being limited. In 1909 brown- 

 tail moth nests were found on shipments of nursery 

 stock to Canada and this led to the enactment of the 

 "Destructive Insect and Pest Act" of May, 1910. This 



act provides either for the prohibition of entry, fumiga- 

 tion on entry, or inspection subsequent to entry, of 

 nursery stock, and gives other conditions governing 

 the introduction of living plants. The act has been 

 amended by additional regulations from time to time, 

 particularly in relation to the chestnut-bark disease, the 

 Mediterranean fruit-fly, potato diseases, and forest 

 products from New England. 



Canadian provincial legislation. 



In addition to the legislation of the Dominion of 

 Canada against insect pests and plant-diseases, several 

 of the provincial governments have enacted similar 

 laws. With the exception, however, of the provinces of 

 British Columbia and Nova Scotia, the provincial 

 governments restrict their attention to the control of 

 pests within their territories. The provinces of Brit- 

 ish Columbia and Nova Scotia, however, inspect and 

 fumigate, if necessary, nursery stock and fruit imported 

 into these provinces. Nova Scotia fumigates and 

 inspects stock coming from other parts of Canada 

 only. As in the case of the United States, there is 

 cooperation between the inspection service of the 

 Dominion and provincial governments. The full text 

 of the Canadian Dominion and provincial laws' in 

 relation to this subject may be obtained from the 

 Dominion Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. 



C. L. MARLATT. 



Quarantine laws. 



State quarantine laws are now in a transition stage. 

 For two or three years there has been active propaganda 

 for uniform state legislation looking to the control of 

 destructive insects and plant diseases. The statutory 

 requirements in the different states are so unlike as 

 to cause much annoyance, and state departments of 

 agriculture or other bodies issue circulars explaining 

 these different requirements for the guidance of 

 nurserymen and others. The bill drafted by the San- 

 ders Committee, already mentioned, has been prac- 

 tically completed, and now awaits enactment. At the 

 request of the Federal Horticultural Board, the Solicitor 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture has 

 drawn a bill for enactment by the different states, to 

 constitute a general plant act rather than a nursery- 

 stock act. Several states are now proposing to enact 

 this draft. 



Even in view of the tentative character of much of 

 the legislation, it seems to be well to reprint here a few 

 of the standard or most important statutes. The 

 Canadian law is the simplest and most direct. It 

 embodies in a few words the power to control the entry 

 of plants from foreign countries and also to control the 

 plants within the Dominion. Under the federal and 

 state constitutions in the United States, such a brief 

 and simple law seems to be impossible. There are here 

 printed, the Canadian law; the United States law; and 

 the laws of New York and California. 



The ideal law is probably one that confers broad 

 powers, and then leaves the details to regulation so 

 that necessary minor changes may be made as cir- 

 cumstances arise. There must naturally be consider- 

 able discretion conferred on competent officers or 

 authorities in dealing with such subjects as quaran- 

 tine of insects and plant diseases. 



Under the federal quarantine act of the United 

 States, some twenty quarantines have now been laid 

 and several of these have required rather elaborate 

 regulations, and modifying orders and amendments 

 have been issued; these matters cannot, of course, be 

 entered here. 



Some of the leading sections in the Sanders' bill, now 

 proposed for legislation in the different state?, are 

 reprinted on pages 1653 and 1654. This bill is likely to 

 become of much importance in inspection legislation. 



