170 
de the er States is urged by the State Department of that 
untry, owing to the disastrous effect on the interests of American 
ddaiérs diem contracts are to be filled. 
The Minister of Agriculture, to whom the said despatehes were 
referred, states that the very serious depredation caused by the 
ravages of the San Jose scale in the United States of America, 
induced Canada, in self protection, to take immediate and extreme 
measures to prevent the introduction of the pest into the 
Dominion. 
The Minister ow states that 32 of the States of the Union 
as well as the District of Columbia are now known to be infected 
with this pest, Md pa so alarmed are the authorities of the 
different States at Se increase of this insect, which is acknow- 
ledged to be by the worst enemy of trees which has ever 
been studied by e entomologists, t that many of the States are now 
for this reason actually passing legislation as drastic as possible 
in their cireumstances, with the o object of preventing the shipment 
of intested stock from State to State. 
spend submits that, in the opinion of all entomologists 
who have studied the su bject, inspection is insufficient ; the 
Dominion nS eel claims that thorough inspection is 
impossible. 
The Minister observes that the following sentence appears i 
the latest publication on the subject by the United States’ 
Entomologist, Bulletin 12, New Series, United States Department 
of wee page 25 
e insu quU of inspection certificates has been insisted 
P wir n and a 
The Minister utl states that the San Jose scale has been 
found at a few localities in the province of Ontario, in one of the 
most important fruit growing districts of the Dominion. 
That the Provincial Government of Ontario recognizing the 
its eradication, which is confidently believed will soon be 
rami am if no further introduction of the pest from abroad 
occu 
That so important was immediate action for the rete of 
Canada's most important fruit industry, and so nu were 
demands from fruit growers, fruit growers’ as itii and 
others in all fruit growing sections of the Dominion, that the 
members of both Houses of Parliament, upon the introduction of 
y iue suspended the rules of the Houses and passed the Bill 
at 
That ‘this was done with the full rat. that a number of 
Canadians would suffer in consequence of the sudden prohibition 
of all nursery stock, they having pee agents for the aru 
of this stock, and in many cases having been paid for 
advance. 
That the results of the Act were referred to on a subsequent 
date in the House of Commons, and the Members evinced a 
strong determination not to recede in any particular from their 
action in passing the Bill. 
The Minister, under the circumstances, is unable to recommend 
that for the present any modification be made to the provisions of 
the “San Jose Scale Act.” 
