THE POTATO QUARANTINE. 7 



The use of foreign sacks which, had contained infected potatoes 

 is a third means of spreading disease to American potatoes. Great 

 numbers of these sacks are gathered up through secondhand dealers 

 and sold in New York, Maine, and other producing centers for use in 

 shipping domestic potatoes. It has not been the practice to sterilize 

 these sacks, though a treatment with steam would render them safe. 



The conclusion reached after consideration of the possibility of the 

 spread of disease through garbage, seed potatoes, and reused sacks 

 was that it will be impossible to prevent the permanent establishment 

 in the United States of any parasitic disease common on imported 

 potatoes. 



IS THE POWDERY SCAB DANGEROUS? 



The Federal Horticultural Board was compelled to decide promptly 

 whether the best policy for the country would be to treat powdery 

 scab as a disease of minor importance and make no restrictions on 

 importations from infected countries, recognizing as inevitable that 

 the disease would soon become common and widely distributed in the 

 United States, or whether it should be considered sufficiently danger- 

 ous to warrant exclusion measures. In deciding this important 

 point all available information was secured. Advice was sought 

 from the plant pathologists in the several State experiment stations, 

 all foreign publications on the subject were consulted, and the advice 

 of representatives of foreign governments was taken through corre- 

 spondence and at a public hearing held in conformity with the plant 

 quarantine act on December 18, 1913. This hearing was attended 

 by a large number of plant pathologists and other State officials, by 

 representatives of farmers' organizations and commercial bodies, and 

 by interested individuals. The thousands of letters, petitions, and tele- 

 grams received by the board showed that the potato growers of the 

 country are no longer apathetic on the question of potato diseases. 



The advice of the foreign representatives was to the general effect 

 that European potatoes had been imported in large quantities for 

 many years; consequently, that if powdery scab were communicable 

 it must be common in the United States, but overlooked, in which 

 event a quarantine would not be lawful under the plant quarantine 

 act. Further, that if powdery scab had not already become estab- 

 lished, this fact should be considered as evidence that no danger 

 exists. 



It was also represented that powdery scab is a disease of such 

 minor importance that the interruption of trade by a quarantine 

 was not justified, and that, if introduced, it could be controlled by 

 using no infected tubers for planting and by discontinuing the use of 

 infected land for growing potatoes. The evidence on each of these 

 points and on other phases considered is summarized later. 



