Plant Sanitation. 



130 



[February, 1912. 



In spite of the many pests which have 

 already gained foothold and the control 

 of which will be a permanent annual 

 charge on production, there remains 

 many otherinsect pests and plant diseases 

 with equal capacity for harm which, 

 fortunately, have not yet come in ; and 

 it is to protect from these new dangers 

 that legislation is now sought, not with 

 the intention of prohibiting the trade 

 in imported stock, but to throw such 

 safeguards around it as will most protect 

 both the importers and the subsequent 

 purchasers of such stock. 



The insect pests and plant diseases 

 that have come in are probably here 

 for all time, but certainly no reasonable 

 objection can be made to the effort to 

 safeguard the future. The conscientious 

 importer will be benefited, and the home 

 producers, the dealers, and all the great 

 fruit and forest interests will be pro- 

 tected by suitable inspection and quar- 

 antine legislation. 



The San Jose scale [had become estab- 

 lished in California on stock introduced 

 from China about 1870, and was known 

 to be one of the most serious of orchard 

 pests. With proper supervision and 

 quarantine it undoubtedly could have 

 been limited to the Pacific Coast in- 

 definitely. A quite unimportant import- 

 ation of stock from California by a 

 prominent Missouri nurseryman in the 

 early nineties established this scale in 

 several eastern nurseries, and this led 

 to the first concerted effort to obtain a 

 national quarantine and inspection law. 

 The failure to reach an agreement 

 among the nurserymen, fruit-growers, 

 and entomologists as to suitable legisla- 

 tion prevented anything coming from 

 this effort, although several Bills were 

 introduced in Congress from time to 

 time. In the meantime, the Sao Jose 

 scale became so widely distributed by 

 transportation on nursery stock that 

 quarantine against this insect was no 

 longer practicable ; and the United 

 States is now being taxed, and probably 

 will be for all time, many million dollars 

 annually because there was no law 

 under which stronghold could have been 

 taken of this danger at the outset. 



As elsewhere noted, the recent effort 

 to secure legislation followed the entry 

 and wide distribution in the United 

 States of brown-tail moth nests on 

 nursery stock, chiefly from northern 

 Prance. The discovery about the same 

 time of the entry of the potato wart 

 disease from Newfoundland, and the 

 white-pine blister rust, chiefly from one 

 district in Germany, greatly emphasised 

 the immediate need for Federal control. 



In the measure now before Congress, 

 inspection of imported nursery stock 

 is left to the different States instead of 

 being undertaken by the Federal Govern- 

 ment. A complete system of notifi- 

 cation is provided for, however, both 

 through the requirement of a permit 

 and by subsequent advices to be given 

 by the customs offices, the broker or first 

 receiver of the stock, and the common 

 carrier transporting it. 



The first clause of the Hill is as 

 follows : — It shall be unlawful for any 

 person, firm, or corporation to import or 

 offer for entry into the United States 

 from any foreign country any nursery 

 stock unless, until a permit shall have 

 been issued therefore by the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, under such conditions and 

 regulations as the said secretary may 

 prescribe, and unless such nursery stock 

 shall be accompanied by a certificate of 

 inspection in manner and form as re- 

 quired by the Secretary of Agriculture 

 from the proper official of the country 

 from which the importation is made to 

 the effect that the stock has been ins- 

 pected and found free from injurious 

 plant diseases and insect pests : Pro- 

 vided, That this section shall not be 

 constructed as applying to plants or 

 plant products solely intended for and 

 adapted to use as food, but to nursery 

 stock or other plants or plant products 

 for propagation : Provided further, That 

 nursery stock may be imported for 

 experimental or scientific purposes, 

 without the certificate of inspection or 

 the permit of the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture hereinbefore required, upon such 

 conditions and under such regulations 

 as the Secretary of Agriculture may pres- 

 cribe: And provided further. That 

 nursery stock imported from countries 

 where no official system of inspection 

 for such stock is maintained may be 

 admitted upon such conditions and 

 under such regulations as the Secretary 

 of Agriculture may prescribe. 



One clause in the Bill makes provision 

 for quarantining foreign districts or 

 particular plant products in foreign 

 district to exclude diseases or insect 

 enemies which cannot otherwise be 

 kept out. This is the provision which 

 has been most objected to by importing 

 nurserymen, and especially by im- 

 porters who have invested in foreign 

 nursery enterprises in France. It is not 

 the intention to apply this section 

 except in the case of diseases or other 

 dangers which cannot be kept out by 

 inspection or disinfection ; in other 

 words, at present it would apply only, 

 so far as is known, to the potato wart 

 disease and the white-pine blister rust. 



