278 BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE [Oct.-Dec. 
The wording of the regulations supplemental to Quarantine No. 37 explicitly 
states that certain importations are to be made for certain purposes which are in 
line with the original objective of the quarantine. I question whether they are 
in line with the wording of the act under which the quarantine was written. 
Nevertheless, the question of ultimate utilization of imports under special permit 
has always been intertwined with the procedure for administering that quaran- 
tine. With the discontinuance of the question of the applicant's horticultural 
<lua]ifications to import, certain relaxations in the attitude toward utilization 
were obviously necessary. The quarantine makes no provision for entry under 
regulation 14 for immediate resale but almost any other proposed utilization 
«ould be, and is, construed as falling under the heading of one of the approved 
purposes. Consequently, insofar as utilization is concerned, no applications for 
special permits are denied except when it is known that immediate resale is con- 
templated. This liberalization brings the administration of the quarantine more 
nearly perhaps but not entirely into legal relation with the act. 
The Plant Quarantine Act does not provide for any procedure whereby an 
importation once released at the port of entry must be grown under approved 
horticultural conditions for any period to give the Department opportunity for 
further inspections to determine apparent freedom from pests. Consequently, 
field inspections of special permit importations have been discontinued. I am not 
prepared to say, however, that in all cases there should be no follow-up field 
inspections but I repeat what I said in 1933 — that inspection methods have im- 
proved, knowledge of conditions has been added to, and more reliance can now be 
placed in inspection at the time of entry than was the case in 1919 when the 
•quarantine was promulgated. Importers are still required to sign the agreement 
to hold their imports for a period of at least 2 years. 
I have attempted to detail the principal features that have been found to be 
out of harmony with the legal provisions of the Plant Quarantine Act, with 
present needs of the country and with sound quarantine practice. Most of these 
features ignore or disregard entirely the pest risk which should be the real basis 
of the quarantine. 
Let us now turn for the moment to the quarantine itself to see what is necessary 
to bring it in harmony with the act 
In brief, section 1 of the Plant Quarantine Act requires that nursery stock 
imported or offered for entry must be imported under permit issued under such 
conditions as the Secretary of Agriculture may prescribe, in addition to those 
laid down in the act. Each shipment must be accompanied by a certificate of 
the proper official of the country from which the importation is made to the effect 
that it has been inspected and is believed to be free of pests. When the condi- 
tions prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture have been met, it is mandatory 
for him to issue a permit for the importation. It is provided that the Secretary 
may prescribe regulations to govern the entry of nursery stock from countries 
not maintaining official systems of inspection. Importations by the Department 
of Agriculture may be made for experimental or scientific purposes under such 
regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture. Please note 
that this section only provides for the Secretary to make conditions of entry. 
He may require that importations shall be free of pests and it is within his 
province to cause inspection to be made to determine compliance with this require- 
ment. He may require that entry be made at specific ports in order that such 
inspection may be made. 
The procedure we have followed has been subjected to careful analysis and 
compared in detail with the language of the Plant Quarantine Act and after 
mature consideration it is believed that specific authority does not exist for limit- 
ing the quantity of nursery stock that may be imported from countries with 
inspection systems or for designating a given person as one qualified to receive 
importations or for prescribing the purpose for which a given importation shall 
be used or for exacting an agreement that the importation shall be grown under 
departmental observation for a given length of time. 
Section 2 of the act requires that a notice shall be given upon arrival of a 
shipment of nursery stock at the port of entry and that before such stock is 
removed from the port of entry a notice of shipment shall also be given. No 
interstate shipment of an importation of nursery stock may be made until either 
such notice has been given or the stock has been inspected by a State official. 
Please note that the notice of shipment is to be given before the removal of the 
importation from the port of entry. This notice is not the condition of entry 
which a regulation promulgated by the Federal Horticultural Board (HB-134, 
