1937] SERVICE AND REGULATORY ANNOUNCEMENTS 
277 
• Early in the administration of the quarantine it was apparent that one im- 
porter might have good reason for wishing to place his importations in the 
care of another, where better propagating facilities, more favorable climatic 
conditions, etc., were available. A contract form signed by the importer and 
his agent and tiled with the Department gained the sanction of the Department 
for such an arrangement. Doubtless there may have been an occasional effort 
to use this contractual arrangement as means of defeating the quantity limita- 
tions but certainly the practice was not general. Today the practice would 
seem to be in general use whenever the limits prevent one from importing the 
desired number of plants. It is known that certain firms have subsidiaries and, 
when the question of quantity limits is raised with the parent firm, the sub- 
sidiaries apply for and receive permits. Members of an importer's family, his 
employees, possibly his neighbors and friends, now apply in their own names, 
submitting contract forms with their applications. As an extreme illustration, 
which after all is extreme only in degree, I mention a firm which, in addition to 
importing the limit of a bulbous genus, contracted to grow, or allowed to be 
grown on its premises, the like importations of 27 other permittees. It is open 
to suspicion that one importer thus actually imported 28 times the quantity 
limit. Many other illustrations involving only fewer importations but accom- 
plishing the same purpose of beating the quarantine, can be found in an exami- 
nation of our files. Amateurs as well as commercial interests are involved be- 
cause under our American system of Government one person is entitled as 
much as another to equal rights and privileges. It is obviously not within our 
province to attempt to say who shall import, as long as the importer agrees to 
utilize his imports for one of the purposes authorized under the quarantine. 
However, it is within our province to say and we do say here and now that 
amateurs and individuals are entitled to and will receive the same consideration 
in the granting of permits as firms and corporations. 
Since last appearing before you studies have been made of our means of 
determining the new varieties and necessary propagating stock, and the results 
achieved. According to our annual reports, at the close of the fiscal year 
1922, 11,344 varieties of plants had been listed on special permit application 
forms — 89.1 percent of these were approved for entry. By the close of the fiscal 
year 1933, 96.2 percent of the 62,570 varieties for which permits had been re- 
quested were approved for importation. In other words, while the net number 
of approved varieties had increased in those 11 years to nearly six times their 
number as of June 30, 1922, the net number of rejected varieties was less than 
two times the 1922 figure. On the other hand, hundreds of these approved 
varieties had not been listed on permit applications for many years. The trade 
had, in effect, "rejected" them as changing conditions, different architectural 
designs, new dress styles requiring flowers of various colors and types, and 
other shifting demands had brought about the need for the different, the newer, 
and often the better varieties. A review of the existing rejections, the majority 
of which had not been questioned by reason of later requests to import the 
varieties involved, showed that many so-called "rejected" varieties should be 
approved for entry. No new rejections were made and gradually we discontin- 
ued entirely, except for narcissus, the effort to designate varieties approved for 
entry. Insofar as varieties listed on applications for permit are concerned, 
the applications are now and will continue to be approved or disapproved solely 
on the basis of pest risk, in accord with the intent of the Plant Quarantine Act. 
This policy has been in effect for some time. 
In selecting those applicants who should be approved to receive permits to 
import it was formerly necessary, in order to determine an applicant's horti- 
cultural qualifications, for him to show that he was an experienced grower of 
the type of plant desired and had ample facilities for the propagation of the 
proposed imports. Under this system there was little opportunity for the ama- 
teur to import, most importations being made by the larger <.'ommercial grow- 
ers. Amateurs were approved on the basis of specializing in a genus, openin;? 
their estates to the public, and exhibiting at the larger horticultural shows. 
Hybridizers were handled on the same basis as amateurs, except that they were 
permitted, in the early days, to sell increase in the same manner as the com- 
mercial propagators. Beginning in 1926 there was a tendency toward greater 
liberality in establishing status, which culminated in the decision reached in 
this Bureau in 1934 to discontinue this phase of our procedure. It is question- 
able whether this Department had a right under the Plant Quarantine Act to- 
say who is and who is not eligible to receive permits. 
