21G 



Till-. NATIONAL OLOGRAPHIC M A( ) A/I X 1*. 



Va ■ 



LIVING WOOD-BORING WORMS IMPORTED AS MEDICINE 



The plant quarantine service of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture calls into cooperation many other departments of the govern- 

 ment, such as the Post-Office, State, and Treasury Departments, 

 etc. The larva shown in this photograph was one of a shipment 

 from Japan invoiced as "medicine" and intercepted and turned 

 over to the Federal inspectors by the postmaster at San Francisco. 



diseases were being brought to the United 

 States every year and with almost every 

 considerable importation of plants. 



These records are, furthermore, by no 

 means complete, inasmuch as many of 

 the States were unable to inspect all of 

 the shipments at destination and, further- 

 more, no inspection, however expert, can 

 be relied upon to discover and eliminate 

 all instances of infestation or contagion. 



Inasmuch as it has been urged that 

 adequate inspection abroad would elimi- 

 nate these dangers, it is, perhaps, oppor- 



tune to introduce at this 

 time a summary of the 

 plant pests intercepted on 

 such importations from 

 the principal exporting 

 countries of the world 

 (hiring these seven years. 



INJURIOUS INSECTS IN- 

 TERCEPTED IN RECENT 

 YEARS 



The countries made the 

 subject of these records 

 are those having the best 



and most expert inspec- 

 tion service and from 

 which the plants coming 

 to us have been in the 

 best condition as to free- 

 dom from pests and gen- 

 eral sanitation. 



During this seven-year 

 period, 1912-1919, there 

 were received from Hol- 

 land 1,051 infested ship- 

 ments, involving 148 

 kinds of insect pests ; 

 from Belgium 1,306 in- 

 fested shipments, involv- 

 ing 64 kinds of insects ; 

 from France 347 infested 

 shipments, involving 89 

 kinds of insects ; from 

 England 154 infested 

 shipments, involving 62 

 kinds of insects ; from 

 Japan 291 infested ship- 

 ments, involving 108 

 kinds of insects, and 

 from Germany 12 in- 

 fested shipments, involv- 

 ing 15 kinds of insect 

 pests. 



As already indicated, 

 these records are by no means necessarily 

 complete, and, furthermore, in the in- 

 stance of the State of New York, which 

 receives the bulk of the foreign plant 

 shipments, reports were made to the De- 

 partment of Agriculture only of the most 

 important findings. Many of these inter- 

 cepted insects are not now known to be 

 established anywhere in this country, and 

 numbers of them, if established, would 

 become important farm, garden, or forest 

 pests. 



Discussing briefly some of these inter- 



