28 THE REPORT OF THE No. 33 



careful study of the entire situation has been made. This will entail an investi- 

 gation of the product from its source to its ultimate destination, the trade routes 

 it has to follow and whether it is an essential commodity or not. Until this is 

 done, mistakes are likely to be made and disastrous results follow. Crises arise, 

 however, which make it imperative to take immediate action and financial loss 

 may result, but such cases are very fortunately comparatively infrequent. 

 Care must also be taken to base the legislation on a strictly scientific foundation 

 and not to be influenced by commercial possibilities. This is a point which 

 needs special attention in these days of keen trade rivalry and competition. 



Insect legislation in Canada dates back to 1883, when an Act was passed 

 in Prince Edward Island to prevent the spread of the Colorado potato beetle. 

 With the appearance of the San Jose scale in British Columbia, legislation was 

 passed in 1894, empowering the Horticultural Board to inspect and treat plants 

 and plant products for pests and diseases. Four years later the first Federal 

 Act was passed, known as the San Jose Scale Act. This law, together with the 

 regulation, prohibited the importation of host plants of this insect from the 

 United States, Australia, Japan and the Hawaiian Islands. With the discovery 

 of effective fumigation methods, the law was modified in 1900 and permitted 

 the importation of fruit stocks, etc., provided they were treated at one of the 

 several Federal fumigation stations. 



As a result of a serious outbreak of the brown-tail moth in France, and the 

 finding of many nests on shipments of imported nursery stock, an active cam- 

 paign was started to inspect all foreign shipments of this character. The 

 following year, 1910, the Destructive Insect and Pest Act was passed and all 

 Federal legislation since that time has been issued as regulations under this law. 

 The Act stands as a monument to the men who were responsible for its 

 preparation, for although innumerable regulations have been passed in accord- 

 ance with its authority, and on all manner of subjects, it has never been necessary 

 to recommend an amendment to the Act itself. 



Two years ago it was realized that the question of insect and pest legislation 

 had assumed such a complicated aspect and involved so many different problems, 

 not only as regards plant life but also trade and manufacturing interests, that 

 in order to. better co-ordinate opinion and effort it was deemed advisable to 

 create an Advisory Board to consider such matters. On April 21st, 1922, the 

 Destructive Insect and Pest Act Advisory Board was constituted, and five 

 officials of the Department of Agriculture were appointed members. The 

 Board is not empowered to pass legislation, but may recommend to the Minister 

 of Agriculture any changes which are considered advisable and in the public 

 interest and, in addition, may call upon other officials of the Department of 

 Agriculture or other persons to act in an advisory capacity. Furthermore, the 

 Board does not administer the various regulations under the Act, their adminis- 

 tration being left to the Branch particularly concerned. 



After careful consideration covering more than two years, including much 

 investigation, and advice sought from the horticultural interests from one end 

 of Canada to the other, including public hearings, the Board recommended to 

 the Minister of Agriculture a general revision of the regulations. 



On September 1st, 1923, the new regulations went into effect. These 

 consist of a series of general regulations and fifteen foreign and six domestic 

 regulations. The general regulations consist of fourteen sections and are more 

 or less comprehensive, but are of particular interest in that they empower the 

 Department to inspect or examine any plants or plant products offered for 



