280 BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE [Oct.-Dec. 
take, but the latter is for the Congress to consider. It is my opinion that 
action in both directions is needed. For example, it would seem proper that 
we should have legal authority in certain instances to require propagation 
of imported stock under safeguards until the pest status of the importation 
has been determined sufficiently to decide whether the risk of introducing 
pests actually exists. With some shipments it is impossible to make this 
determination at the time of entry because the immature stages of develop- 
ment of some organisms present are impossible of diagniosis. 
Many American growers have built their businesses on the trade protection 
afforded by the policies followed in administering Quarantine 37. In justice to 
them the Department has issued repeated statements pointing out that the Plant 
Quarantine Act and quarantines promulgated thereunder should be administered 
for the sole purpose of preventing the entry into this country and the spread 
within the United States of injurious plant pests. These statements have been 
a warning to growers to adjust their businesses away from the false basis of the 
trade protection given them by the administrative procedure we have been 
discussing. 
Quarantines are and should be for the purpose of preventing the entry and 
movement of pests and for facilitating the entry and movement of products. 
Quarantine 37 has been used more for the purpose of preventing the entry and 
movement of products and for creating monopolies in the production of certain 
fancied varieties of plants. At numerous public hearings and conferences held 
on this quarantine in Washington the evidence has forced one to conclude that 
the greater interest was in trade protection than in pest protection. We have 
witnessed not so long ago the spectacle of a certain group urging the continued 
admission of a large class of products infested by a certain pest on the theory 
that it had not been proven that this pest would transfer to other commodities. 
The exclusion was demanded by the same group of another product carrying a 
pest which cannot be distinguished microscopically from the one infesting the 
products the entry of which that group demanded. Changes in the quarantine 
have been made, changes are being made, and changes will continue to be made 
until finally in spite of the obstacles thrown in the way. the quarantine will be 
placed on the basis which has for its purpose the prevention of pest movement 
and not the prevention of plant movement. 
In conclusion, I wish to emphasize again the need for more adequate inspec- 
tion facilities at New York and certain other ports of entry. The examination 
of plant imports in modern inspection houses in New York and other ports of 
entry would not only afford greater protection to the country, but would obviate 
the necessity of shipping plants to Washington, frequently under adverse condi- 
tions, not to mention the cost in time and money. 
P. Q. C. A. 283, revised, Supplement No. 5. 
PLANT-QUARANTINE IMPORT RESTRICTIONS, CUBA 
October 14, 1937. 
State Certtficate of Origin Accepted for Rich 
Circular No. 81, of August 20, 1937, of the Cuban Direction General of Customs, 
to attest the origin of rice, granted the benefit of the preferential established in 
decree No. 2438, August 9, 1937, and prescribed the production of a certificate 
issued by an association of millers organized prior to the promulgation of that 
decree and officiaily recognized by the laws of the United States, and devoted to 
the industrial handling of rice grown in the United States. 
Circular No. 87, of September 8, 1937, amplifies the provisions of Circular 
No. 81 by prescribing that certificates of origin issued under the seal and signa- 
ture of State departments of agriculture, affirming that the rice in question is a 
product of the soil and industry of the United States, will be accepted for rice 
grown in the United States and exported to Cuba. 
Lee a. Strong, 
Chief, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine. 
