()S AWTAI. IMPORTS <>I DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, I 
During the year 9,500 import permits were issued, amended, or 
cancelled. At the end of the year there were in effect L,830 con- 
tinuing permits for the entry of plant propagating materia] and 
5,400 !'<»r entry of other kind- of plant products. There were 
permit- issued during the year for entry of individual shipments of 
plant propagating materia] and 840 for other type- of plant products. 
Careful inspection of plant- imported by the Department of A:_ r ri- 
culture for scientific purposes disclosed large numbers of bruchids 
from 11 different countries, scale insects, thrips, whiteflies, wood 
borers, leaf chafer.-, pink boUworms, and two species of eotton borers. 
These importations were fumigated or otherwise treated. 
Rusts and smuts particularly destructive to cereal crops were also 
frequently encountered. From numerous importation- of foreign 
grass seed to he used in improving our grazing land-, numerous rusts, 
smuts, and other diseases were found and appropriate safeguarding 
measures applied. 
Treatment or regrinding was required of large quantities of cotton- 
seed meal, hulls, and cake imported for use during a cattle-feed 
shortage in the Western State-. Such treatment was required t<> 
destroy any pink bollworms that might he present in uncrushed 
cottonseed. 
Point-of-origin inspection of bulbs in The Netherlands and Bel- 
gium, started during L951, was continued with wiy satisfactory re- 
sults. From July L952 through January L953, 17-". million bulbs 
and bulblets were inspected in The Netherlands and nearly L5 million 
in Belgium prior to shipment to the United States. 
There ha- been a lame increase during the past 4 years in the num- 
ber of plant- imported lor growing under postentry (juarant ine before 
release. These postentry restrictions have not proved to be a deter- 
rent to those needing plants in commercial quantities. Importations 
for growing under postentry restrictions increased from 494 ship- 
ments of 1,066,000 plant units in 1949 to 7ii*» shipments of 3,033,000 
units in 1952. 'The major part of this increase was due to a rela- 
tively few Large importation- of a few genera, such a- Rosa, Malus^ 
Acer, and Saltx, which represented new selections or items in short 
supply in the United State.-. There was no corresponding increase 
in importations by amateur or noncommercial growers. Observat ions 
of one lot of plants growing under postentry quarantine showed the 
presence of the rust Gyrrmosporangiwm saoiruu (Dicks.) Wint. on 
junipers. The infected plant- were rogued and destroyed. This rust. 
causes a leaf Spot on pear, an alternate ho-t. 
B emulations governing the entry of mollusks were promulgated 
effective October 22, L952, under authority of the Molhi.-k Act of 
September22, L951 (65 Stat. 335, 7 (J. S. C. Sup. Hit. These regula- 
tions require such treatments <>r safeguards a- may be accessary to 
prevent entry of the giant African snail <>r other harmful mollusks. 
Returned military equipment and similar materials have been found 
to be the principal carriers of the giant African -nail. 
Thousands of lot j of destructive insect pests and plant diseases were 
prevented from entering the country with cargoes of imported plant 
material. Many of the commodities involved are known to constitute 
a pesl risk and therefore require treatment as a routine condition of 
entry. Many time- during the year pests ami prohibited plant ma- 
terial were found under iinu-ual circumstance- a- a re-ult of alert- 
