BUREAU OF PLANT QUARANTINE 33 
Such quarantines can prevent the transportation of serious pests into new locali- 
ties only if infested products are prevented from being shipped from the quaran- 
tined districts to outside points. Such infestations may be carried to new areas 
by those ignorant of, or indifferent to, the required safeguards. The transit 
inspectors work in important post offices and at express and freight transfer 
points through which quarantined products move, and, on discovering uncer- 
tified shipments which may carry infestation, return them to the sender. 
This work is particularly necessary when new areas or new products are 
brought under quarantine. In such cases, interested shippers cannot all be 
reached or their indifference overcome, until a check is made on the movement 
of the plants or other products concerned. The Department has found that 
when such checking is not carried out a considerable proportion of plant ship- 
ments are sent without having been inspected or having complied with the safe- 
guards needed to prevent the spread of infestation. With transit inspection in 
operation, however, the number of quarantine violations is reduced to 1 or 2 
shipments in every thousand, and these are intercepted and turned back. For 
example, western Pennsylvania was brought within the area regulated under the 
Japanese-beetle quarantine in the fall of 1932, but checking on common-carrier 
shipments was not started until May 20, 1933. Thirty-four shipments moving 
in violation of the Federal and State quarantines on account of this pest were 
intercepted during the first 8 days of such checking. Within the next 2 weeks 
thereafter shippers had so familiarized themselves with the requirements that 
the number of violations was reduced to less than one a day. 
The return of the plants to the sender under such conditions is proving a much 
more desirable procedure than prosecuting the shipper. Since this project was 
organized several years ago, prosecutions have been instituted only in the case 
of apparently intentional violations or where gross carelessness was involved. 
The most important change in the project during the year consisted of the 
establishment of transit inspection at Jacksonville, Fla., in August 1932, in 
cooperation with the State plant board. The number of interceptions reported 
immediately showed the importance of this point for the protection of the State 
against the introduction of the Japanese beetle and other pests, as well as for 
the enforcement of the narcissus-bulb quarantine. 
The number of violations intercepted at the various inspection points during 
the fiscal year 1933 totaled 1,486, out of 873,153 shipments, 625 carloads, and 
1,276 trucks checked. A synopsis of the work is given in tables 13 and 14. 
The information given in table 13 includes interceptions of this type made by 
inspectors employed on other projects working in direct cooperation with transit 
inspectors but does not include reports from State inspectors at points of desti- 
nation, except in the case of Florida where, as stated, the work is carried on in 
direct cooperation with the Department. The numbers of shipments inspected 
and of interceptions, respectively, are lower than during the past several years, 
partly on account of reductions in the number of inspectors owing to reduced 
appropriations, and partly on account of lessened total traffic in plants resulting 
from the depressed economic conditions throughout the country. 
12988—33 5 
