476 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



orchards have been almoBt completely cleaned up during the year, but others are 

 still seriously infested, and among them are half-a-dozen orchards which contain 

 large-sized palms which require rejx'ated treatments over a considerable period to 

 thoroughly eradicate the 8cale. 



The 12,000 recently imported offshoots are all under close observation, and many 

 of them are likely to" develop scale infestation later on, even if they are now appar- 

 ently (lean, and these plantings must, therefore, be kept under observation for a con- 

 siderable period of years before the plants can be taken out of quarantine and dis- 

 tributed. 



More than 100 of the date plantations in the United States have been completely 

 cleaned up within the past eight years by the methods now being followed, and it is 

 believed that the remaining infested groves can be similarly cleaned up within the 

 next few years. 



The Parlatoria scale is so destructive to the date palm that the experts of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry and all others who have studied the matter agree that dates can 

 not be grown in this countr>- profitably unless the Parlatoria scale is completely eradi- 

 cated. The whole future of this promising industr>-, which is so admirably adapted 

 to the irrigated valleys of the Southwest, is, therefore, tied up with the success of the 

 Parlatoria eradifation work. Several million dollars have already been invested in 

 date culture and the industry' is a rapidly growing one. 



During the past year a very efficient corps of date scale inspectors has been trained, 

 and rapid progress is being made in the work of eradication of the scale. The State 

 and county officers of California and Arizona ha\e given most thoroughgoing coop- 

 eration in this campaign of eradication. 



PORT INSPECTION SERVICE. 



Of particular importance at this time is the strengthening of the port of entry 

 inspection service for the enforcement of the various foreign quarantines. This 

 service is the first line of defense and represents a very important and rapidly growing 

 activity. The enforcement of foreign quarantines must primarily he carried out at 

 the ports of entry of the United States. It involves the inspection, in cooperation 

 with customs officers, of vessels arriving from foreign countries for the purpose of 

 excluding plant pests with plant material brought as cargo of such vessels or In' 

 passengers or crews. In the case of Mexico, it involves the control of freight and 

 other traffic between that Republic and the United States, ^nd control to a much 

 less extent on the ('anadian ])order. 



Two States, California and Florida, on account of their very important fruit inter- 

 ests, are giving most valual)le cooperation and aid in such port inspection work. The 

 State of California is spending in this work approximately §100,000 a year to protect 

 her great fruit industry, and by collaboration this department gets the advantage 

 of this work at trifling cost. Florida is in a similar status. No other States are 

 taking this same sort of action and the protection at the other ports of the United 

 States is practically limited to work of the Federal Horticultural Board of this de- 

 partment. 



The imjjortance of this work may be illustrated by the following typical instance: 

 The examination of the personal baggage of a jja-ssenger landing at Baltimore from 

 Brazil disclosed in one of his l)oxes some fifty-odd packages of Brazilian cotton seed 

 all infested with living pink l)ollworms. The owner proposed to take the material 

 to the cotton section of Mississippi for planting. Jlad there been no insjiector at 

 Baltimore, this entry would i)robal)ly have resulted in the establishment in that 

 State and in the Soiith of tii(! Wdi-st known enemy of cotton, and would iK>ssil)ly 

 have nullified all the effort which has iieen going on now for several yeai-s at great 

 cost to control and erailicate this j)est in its present rather limited foothold in Louis- 

 iana, Texas, and New Mexico. This is only one illusti-ation of hundreds during the 

 year of the interception of {)ests threatening many of the major fruit and lield crops 

 of the Nation. These intercciptions have included such important pests as the corn 

 l>orer, <-itrus canker, i)ink bollworni, various fruit llies, including the Metliter- 

 ranean, jtolato weevils, and many others of both known and unknown possibilities. 

 A total of ;{it7 dilfercnt kinds of insect ju'sts have been thus intercepted and identi- 

 lied, together with IT.'j others, the specilic identilication of which it has been iniptw- 

 eible to make. This service is now much undermanned and long hours are involved, 

 and at itn|)()rtant j)orts oidv partial inspection cun now lie made, and other ports are 

 without any protection of this sort wIiuIi'mt. 



In conrii-ctioM \silli llii.M inspection ol iniporled plants and plant |>ro(huls it is very 

 ini|iortaiit that jirovision be made for cooperation with the Post Oflice Department for 

 the examination of parcel-post packages from abroad. The postal inspectors are not 



