BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 51 
FOREIGN PLANT QUARANTINES 
MARITIME PORT INSPECTION 
Many of the effects of war that were noted in previous reports 
marked foreign-plant-quarantine enforcement in 1944 at maritime 
ports. Success in the antisubmarine warfare, together with ship con- 
struction, resulted in a 39-percent increase in ship arrivals over 1943, 
and consequently in cargoes subject to inspection; but there was a 
marked reduction in the need for emergency safeguards for cargoes 
discharged from ships under distress conditions. Wartime controls 
over commerce, such as the convoy system, continued to place heavy 
loads on inspection staffs in peak periods. The use of dry ballast 
again necessitated large expenditures of inspector-hours in protection 
against pest risk when the ballast contained top soil. 
The record of ship inspections appears in table 7. The data given 
in this table do not include those for ships engaged only in Great 
Lakes trade. 
Table 7. — Number of ships arriving, inspected, and bearing p?~ohibitcd plant 
material, fiscal year ldkk 
Origin 
Arriving 
Inspected 
Bearing 
prohib- 
ited ma- 
terial 
Foreign ports, direct 
21, 832 
3, 442 
94 
33 
1, 166 
50 
466 
30 
184 
21, 749 
3, 210 
. 94 
33 
1,166 
50 
465 
30 
184 
4,813 
191 
13 
12 
190 
Foreign ports, via United States ports. --- 
Foreign ports, via Hawaii 
Foreign ports, via Puerto Rico. 
Hawaii, direct 
Hawaii, via United States continental ports 
Puerto Rico, direct 
38 
1 
58 
Puerto Rico, via United States continental ports 
United States ports, via Panama Canal 
Total 
27, 297 
26, 981 
5.316 
CARGO INSPECTION 
Importations of plants and plant products showed an increase for 
the year, notably in fruits and vegetables, with a falling off in nursery 
stock. The totals were as follows: Fruits and vegetables, 10,299.785 
containers, 30,316,596 bunches of bananas, 17,387,327 pounds, and 86,- 
436 units; nursery stock and seeds, 6,926 containers, 1,661,489 pounds, 
and 1,700,607 units; cotton lint, bagging, and cotton products, 166,133 
bales, 1,155,762 containers, and 37,580.202 pounds; fibers and cereals, 
166,089 bushels, 123,462 containers, 6,141.238 pounds, 53,592 dozen, and 
17 units. In addition 205 lots of restricted plant material were ad- 
mitted in accordance with governing regulations at Canadian border 
ports where no plant-quarantine inspectors arc stationed, through the 
cooperation of the customs officers and the Canadian Department of 
Agriculture. 
Not included in the foregoing totals were several thousand impor- 
tations of fruits and vegetables over the Mexican border, in such 
small quantities that no entries are required by customs and no plant- 
quarantine record of them is made. Each of these small lots was 
inspected before release, and a large outlay of inspector-hours was 
required to handle them, especially at the larger ports. 
