532 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



rim at all ports of entry and especially the Pacific, Gulf, and south 

 Atlantic ports. 



It frequently happens that shiploads of products which are pro- 

 hibited entry into the United States enter these ports either for trans- 

 shipment of such cargoes into other vessels en route to foreign coun- 

 tries or for temporary purposes, such as coaling or provisioning or 

 other immediate needs, and that such ships lie at anchor in such ports 

 for days or weeks together. There have been repeated instances of 

 shiploads of cotton seeds from Brazil, and even from South Africa, 

 thus remaining at such ports as New Orleans and Norfolk seeds 

 which were more or less heavily infested with pink bollworm or other 

 dangerous insects. Such cargoes involve great danger of escape of 

 insects to adjoining fields cropped to host plants of such insects. Such 

 shipping should be safeguarded by inspection, and the cargoes, where 

 necessary, should be sealed or disinfected. It has become apparent, 

 therefore, that the port inspection service of this department should 

 be greatly strengthened. 



To establish such comprehensive and thoroughgoing port inspection 

 service as is urgently needed to prevent new plant enemies from 

 being brought into the United States, and for a more effective admin- 

 istration of existing quarantines, an increase of $100,000 in the gen- 

 eral appropriation has been asked for in the estimates submitted for 

 the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921. 



A PLANT-QUARANTINE LAW NEEDED FOR THE DISTRICT OF 



COLUMBIA. 



There is at present no law under which the movement of diseased 

 or insect-infested nursery stock and other plants and plant products 

 into the District of Columbia from surrounding or other States, or 

 from the District of Columbia into surrounding or other States, can 

 be adequately controlled, nor is there statutory authority for control 

 and extermination within the District of Columbia of plant pests 

 and diseases. Such control is exercised under State and Territorial 

 laws elsewhere in the United States. Under present conditions, there- 

 fore, the District of Columbia is without such protection, and becomes 

 in fact a menace to the surrounding country as a means of lodgment 

 and dissemination of dangerous plant pests. Illustrating this condi- 

 tion, one of the worst pests which has recently been introduced into 

 the United States, the oriental fruit moth, which now seriously 

 threatens the deciduous-fruit industry of this country, gained entrance 

 in large part through importations of ornamental stock into the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia; and there exist now within the District of Colum- 

 bia thousands of peach, plum, cherry, apple, and other trees infested 

 with this insect, affording breeding sources from which the insect 

 has already spread to the adjacent States of Maryland and Virginia. 

 * To meet this need a draft of a proposed amendment to the plant- 

 quarantine act of August 20, 1912, was prepared by this board in co- 

 operation with the office of the solicitor of this department and was 

 submitted to Congress by the Secretary of Agriculture for incorpo- 

 ration w^ith the appropriations for the Federal Horticultural Board 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920. This amendment was ap- 

 proved by the House and Senate Committees on Agriculture, but 

 failed of enactment. The powers requested are proper and necessary, 

 and it is hoped that early favorable action on this proposed amend- 

 ment can be secured. 



