78 PLANT QUARANTINE AND CONTROL ADMINISTRATION [April-June, 
It appears necessary, therefore, to consider the advisability of quarantining 
the State of Florida and of restricting or prohibiting the movement of peaches, 
plums, grapefruit, oranges, and all other hosts of this insect, from that State, 
or from any districts therein. 
Notice is, therefore, hereby given that, in accordance with the plant quar- 
antine act of August 20, 1912 (37 Stat. 315), as amended by the act of Congress 
approved March 4, 1917 (39 Stat. 1134, 1165), a public hearing will be held 
before the Plant Quarantine and Control Administration and the Federal Plant 
Quarantine Board of the United States Department of Agriculture in the offices 
of the administration at 1729 New York Avenue, Washington, D. C, at 10 a. m., 
April 22, 1929, in order that any person interested in the proposed quarantine 
may appear and be heard either in person or by attorney. 
Ajjthur M. Hyde, 
Secretary of Agriculture. 
FLORIDA TO BE QUARANTINED ON ACCOUNT OF THE FRUIT FLY 
[Press notice] 
April 24, 1929. 
A Federal quarantine restricting the movement of fruit and certain vegetables 
from Florida to prevent the spread of the Mediterranean fruit fly, recently found 
established in parts of that State, will be issued within a few days, or as soon 
as the requirements of the plant quarantine act can be complied with, it was 
announced to-day by the United States Department of Agriculture. 
Considering the presence of the pest a serious menace to the entire fruit and 
vegetable industry of the United States requiring emergency methods of control, 
the department has asked Congress to authorize the transfer, for use in fighting 
the fruit fly, of $4,250,000 from the unexpended balance of a special appropria- 
tion made on account of the pink boll-worm which is available because con- 
ditions have prevented its use for the original purpose. 
In the meantime, Secretary of Agriculture Hdye has authorized an " emer- 
gency " transfer of $40,000 to provide for the preliminary steps which have been 
and are now being taken to control the new pest. 
The intensity of the infestation, according to the department, indicates that 
it will be necessary immediately to determine fully and accurately the area in- 
fested ; to destroy all fruit in the infested area ; to clean up infested groves, 
involving the spraying of the trees to poison the adult flies, and the destruction 
of pupae in the soil ; to trace shipments of fruits which have been made from 
the infested area ; to determine whether the pest has been distributed to distant 
points by means of infested fruit ; in view of the uncertainty of the extent of 
spread within the State, to provide for the inspection and certification of all 
fruits and of all host vegetables moving out of Florida ; and as a further pre- 
caution approved by the representatives of the citrus industry of the State, to 
prohibit the movement of culls from all portions of the State — in other words, 
to limit shipments to graded and boxed fruit moving in refrigerated cars. 
The Mediterranean fruit fly occurs in many tropical and subtropical countries 
where it causes enormous damage by its attacks on a very wide variety of 
hosts — both fruits and vegetables — represented by such important commercial 
crops as oranges, grapefruit, plums, peaches, grapes, melons, squash, beans, etc. 
In addition to these important crops it also attacks guavas, mangoes, certain 
cherries, and many other tropical and subtropical fruits and vegetables grown 
in varying quantities in Florida and other parts of the United States. This 
pest injures the fruit or vegetable only and does not attack the plant. The 
eggs are deposited by the adult within the host fruit or vegetable, hatching 
into maggots which feed on the pulp until full grown. This pest breeds with 
enormous rapidity, a single female depositing upwards of 600 eggs, and in 
warm weather there may be a new generation every month, or even oftener. 
In Hawaii from 15 to 1G generations occur yearly. This fecundity makes 
poss'ble within a single season the entire destruction of the crop. 
The department has for many years enforced a rigid quarantine against 
fruits and vegetables from the Territory of Hawaii, and in more recent years 
has enforced fruit embargoes against several foreign countries in which the 
fruit fly was known to be established. Further, fruits and vegetables from 
all foreign countries are now admitted at ports of entry of the United States 
only after inspection. 
