Tenth Annual Meeting 103 



were read and discussed, and the work of the convention was 

 crystallized in a bill which was drawn up and introduced into 

 Congress, providing for a system of inspection to prevent the 

 introduction into this country of pests now recognized in 

 foreign lands and to prevent the dissemination of pests from 

 one part of the United States to another through interstate 

 commerce. Previous to this time a few states had enacted 

 laws for the protection of their own fruit interests, and it was 

 generally recognized that a national measure would be much 

 more satisfactory in its workings than separate legislation in 

 the different states. The bill, however, failed to pass, not 

 because there was any particular opposition to such a measure, 

 but because it was pushed aside to give time for the con- 

 sideration of other seemingly more important matters. And so 

 on to this day every Congress has been asked to pass a similar 

 law by the leading horticulturists and entomologists of this 

 country, and twice, if I mistake not, the Committee on 

 Agriculture has reported favorably on the bills, but the Spanish 

 war, our new possessions, the currency question and a hundred 

 other matters seemed of so much greater importance to our 

 national legislators that the time was not long enough to con- 

 sider and pass a measure which would unquestionably benefit 

 the great and growing fruit interests of the whole United 

 States. But if a national measure could not be procured, state 

 legislation must be enacted, for horticultural interests must be 

 protected ; and state legislatures passed laws one after another, 

 each different in scope and methods of execution. The cause 

 of all this attempted legislation, the direct impetus of the 

 whole movement, was the San Jose scale, which had been 

 brought into the east and distributed over nearly every state on 

 nursery stock. Incidentally, other pests were included in the law. 

 At the present time laws are in force in twenty-two differ- 

 ent states; and in four more bills have already been introduced 

 into the legislatures and are expected to pass soon. (Copies 

 of the laws are on file at the Experiment Station.) In another 

 state, legislation is contemplated, but the movement has not 

 yet taken form. I have prepared a list of states which have 

 enacted laws, also giving the provision for expenses, and the 

 official or board under which the work is carried out. 



