March 4, 1917.— Vari ous changes were made in Section 6 

 for the purpose of maiding it possible to control, under the 

 Act, the movement of any product which might carry a pest; in 

 other wards, it was shown that quarry products, railroad ties, 

 etc., were perhap3 the most dangerous source of carriage of 

 gipsy moth eggs* In addition, the Act was changed to make 

 possible regional quarantines, the specific object being the 

 possibility cf quarantining the eastern half of the United 

 States on account of the white pine blister rust for the pro- 

 tection of the white or five-needle pines of the Bocifcy 

 Mountain and Pacific Coast ranges; in other words, to make 

 it possible to quarantine a region irrespective of infesta- 

 tion throughout for the protection of any other region. Use 

 of this amendment has been made not only in the case of the 

 white pine blister rust, but also for the control of the black 

 stem rust of wheat in connection with the barberry rust cam- 

 paign. 



May 31, 1920 Q — .Section 15 was added to the Act to 

 provide for the control of plant movement and plant disease* 

 in the district of Columbia. Prior to that time the District 

 cf Columbia was a sort of an oasis in the United States, 

 without legal authority for any plant disease or pest control 

 whatsoever. 



EW3I BC03SATI0KS— POLICY OF TEE DEPARTMENT. 



An effort has been made to make it appear that Plant Quarantine 37 contem- 

 plates a total e mbargo against the introduction into the United States of "any 

 newly discovered, rare, interesting, especially exotic, fruit or ornamental 

 plant, whether species or hybrids." That the Department has no wish or intention, 

 now or at any future time, to mate it impossible to provide for the entry, under 

 proper safeguards, of any plant whatsoever, for which a real need can be shewn, 

 and that ample provision has been made for such importations under Quarantl»§ 37, 

 will be at once apparent from any examination of the quarantine and regulations 

 and of the records of importations thereunder. 



This-, misapprehension as to the policy of the Department is fairly plainly 

 traceable to an exploitation of alleged sentences from official letters or publi- 

 cations of the Federal Horticultural Board which, by elimination of all qualify- 

 ing clauses, are made to indicate a meaning almost the exact opposite of that 

 plainly conveyed by the sentence as a whole. For example, the sentence quoted 

 below has been widely exploited, but omitting the portions which are now ital- 

 icized, making it appear that a future embargo was contemplated. The complete 

 sentence as it was issued is a perfectly proper epitomized statement of the 

 purpose of Plant Quarantine 37, with tZie object of reducing to the lowest minimum 

 of necessity plant importations, and thereby lessening the risk of further entry 



