34 INSECTS OF ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 



within the State. Similar restrictions have also 

 been imposed in some of the Southern States to pre- 

 vent the spread of the Mexican cotton-boll weevil 

 from one district to another within the State. 

 These laws of the different States are intended to 

 meet local conditions and are not uniform which 

 results in much confusion. 



The National Quarantine Law — For many 

 years there was in this country an agitation for a 

 uniform, national quarantine law to g-overn the im- 

 portation of nursery stock into the United States 

 and to regulate the shipment of such stock among 

 the States themselves. As a result of this demand, 

 Congress passed such a law/^ which went into ef- 

 fect the first day of October, 1912. The law has 

 two purposes : '( i ) to regulate the importation of 

 nursery stock, other plants, and plant products from 

 foreign countries into the United States to prevent 

 the introduction of injurious insects and plant dis- 

 eases; (2) to establish quarantines against any 

 State, territory, or district of the United States or 

 any portion thereof to prevent the distribution 

 throughout the United States of any dangerous 

 plant diseases or injurious insects. 



To carry out the provisions of the law, a Federal 

 Horticultural Board consisting of five members was 

 appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture from 

 certain Bureaus and offices in the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



The National Insecticide Law — Various 

 States have undertaken at different times to regu- 

 late by law the composition of certain insecticides 

 sold within their boundaries. Such laws have not 

 been uniform and have been, on the whole, more or 

 less unsatisfactory. In 1910 Congress passed a 



"1 An Act to regulate the importation of nursery stock, etc. Pub- 

 lic Document— No. 275. 



