96 ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



concerning nursery inspection and the importation of nursery stock, 

 and some concerning inspection of orchards, etc. Some of these laws 

 were good, others bad. Confusion for the nurseryman resulted. In 

 late years we have been engaged in attempting to secure as much 

 uniformity as possible in these laws, and in this effort the organiza- 

 tion of the National Association of Horticultural Inspectors has been 

 of the greatest value. From the first it was seen that the matter of 

 the control of nursery stock was properly a matter for control by the 

 National Government, being strictly a matter of interstate commerce. 

 As a result, on March 5, 1897, there assembled in Washington, D. C., 

 a National Convention for the Suppression of Insect Pests and Plant 

 Diseases by Legislation. The writer finds that but few of the present 

 members of this association were present at that meeting, though all 

 are probably familiar with its deliberations. This convention repre- 

 sented the horticultural interests of the entire country. It adopted a 

 measure which it recommended to Congress, empowering the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture to establish an inspection of all importations into 

 the United States of nursery stock, plants, etc., and of all which were 

 subject to interstate commerce, and also recommended an outline for 

 State legislation upon the same subject. This proposed legislation 

 seems to the writer to cover the matter of the inspection and control 

 of insects disseminated on nursery stock, plants, etc., in a most satis- 

 factory manner, taken as a whole, though some minor points might 

 now need modification. At this meeting Dr. L. O. Howard presented 

 a paper, in closing, in which he is reported to have said : 



In conclusion the writer expressed his firm conviction that the establishment 

 of such a service at the Eastern ports * * * would many times repay the 

 horticultural interests of the country. 



In the next Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture (1898), in 

 a most interesting and valuable article upon the Danger of Import- 

 ing Insect Pests, Doctor Howard again urged the importance of such 

 legislation. He said: 



The remedy for this condition of affairs is obvious. Laws must be passed 

 establishing a system of inspection of dangerous classes of merchandise, just as 

 has already been done in the case of live stock, and just as has already been 

 done in a partial way by the State of California. The passage of some such 

 national measure as that recommended by the convention of horticulturists and 

 agriculturists held in Washington, D. C. March 5, would seem, from a consider- 

 ation of the facts here presented, to be abundantly justified by the constant 

 danger which threatens our agricultural and horticultural interests. 



The writer is not familiar with the inside history of the work of 

 the committee on legislation appointed by this convention. In any 

 event nothing came of it. It is the writer's impression that the 

 matter at first received the opposition of influential nurserymen. 

 Later, however, when it became necessary for the nurserymen to com- 



