38 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 1934 
such plants grow wild often in practically all types of land except that under 
frequent cultivation. Under favorable moisture and soil conditions they sprout 
readily from broken root stocks, and seedlings often come up in numbers from 
seed produced from 1 to a number of years previously. In these sections, wild 
currant and gooseberry plants are so persistent that the sanitation zone must be 
thoroughly covered each year in order to protect the pines. In Virginia and Mary- 
land, on the other hand, currant and goosebery plants have not been found to be 
growing wild in the nursery sections except in one instance in which a few native 
bk.ck currant plants were located, and the work has therefore involved little or no 
expense to the nursery owners. 
In the nursery-protection work, it is necessary to attain a very high degree of 
efficiency in currant and gooseberry eradication. Experience has shown that the 
presence of a very few plants within the 1,500-foot zone is likely to result in 
infection being carried to the white pine seed or transplant beds. It is therefore 
necessary that eradication crews work and rework the 1,500-foot zone until they 
are thoroughly convinced that the last currant or gooseberry plant has been 
detected and destroyed. 
After the annual inspections of nurseries and the environs were made it was 
found possible to issue shipping permits for 22 premises, of which 4 are operated 
by Federal or State Governments and 18 by private individuals or corporations. 
Twelve of the applications for permits were withdrawn or disapproved for the 
reason either that blister rust infection was found, or that currant or gooseberry 
plants were so prevalent as to endanger the pines, and the applications of three 
nurseries in which the pines had not reached a salable size were tentatively 
approved. Of the commercial concerns, those whose applications were approved 
reported that they were growing 243,150 white pines and those whose applica- 
tions were denied reported a total of 212,150 such pines. The four permittees 
whose nurseries are operated by the Federal or State Governments were growing 
13,800,000 white pines. 
During the fiscal year 56 violations of the white pine blister rust quarantine 
regulations were intercepted by transit inspectors and returned to the sender. 
In one case, blister rust infection was found and the infected twigs and branches 
destroved. 
TRANSIT INSPECTION 
Transit inspection is the principal method used by the Department in insuring 
compliance with domestic plant quarantines so far as mail, express, and freight 
shipments are concerned. The inspectors under this project are stationed at the 
principal railroad-transfer points in various sections of the country, and at these 
points they check shipments of plants and other restricted articles to be sure that 
they comply with the Federal plant-quarantine requirements to prevent the 
spread of pests from infested to uninfested sections of the country. 
This work is carried out in cooperation with the States in which such transfer 
points are located, and with the hearty assistance and support of the employees 
of the Post Office Department and the railway and express companies. 
With the development of additional types of common-carrier movement, 
particularly airplanes and automobile-truck lines, the work has been extended 
where possible to the checking of such shipments also. No road stations are 
maintained under this project, but freight movement by way of interstate truck- 
ing lines which have regular stations in the principal cities are being checked to a 
limited extent. 
Parcels moving by air mail and express are in most cases inspected at the post 
office and express platforms in the regular routine. In Chicago it has been found 
practicable to visit the airport regularly during certain seasons. In carrying out 
this plan during the past fiscal year, 82 shipments moving by air mail and 961 
moving by air express were inspected. One quarantine violation was intercepted 
during such inspections. It consisted of cut flowers being shipped during the 
summer from the Japanese beetle-infested area of New Jersey to a point in 
Nevada without having been inspected previously and certified as free from the 
Japanese beetle. 
The procedure of checking shipments to determine compliance with domestic 
plant quarantines has recently been considerably simplified by the publication 
of Miscellaneous Publication 189, A Synopsis of Federal Plant Quarantines 
Affecting Interstate Shipments in Effect January 1, 1934. This synopsis, in 
addition to outlining the quarantine requirements, gives the quarantines affecting 
shipments from and to each individual post office of the United States. The 
publi cation has been in considerable demand from shippers and the employees 
of transportation agencies as well as from various nursery inspectors and plant 
quarantine officers throughout the United States. 
