FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
101 
Plant Board has prohibited the entry of 
plants and fruit with leaves, twigs and 
other litter in the crates. There is not a 
month that passes without the inspectors 
at Port Tampa, Key West and Miami 
making an interception of infested mate¬ 
rial, any one of which, if permitted to 
land in Florida, might mean the establish¬ 
ment of the black fly within her bound¬ 
aries. The grave situation at Key West 
lies in the fact that there are three ferry 
boats arriving daily from Cuba loaded 
with freight cars, both full and empty. 
These cars pass through the heart of the 
infested area in Cuba, and at times stand 
on side tracks for days, and are then load¬ 
ed onto the ferries for shipment to Key 
West. There is always the possibility of 
adult flies being in either the empty 
freight cars, and when the ferries are 
docked at Key West, flying to the light, 
and of course, ashore. It has been stated 
that the Florida quarantine inspection 
service has every crack in the jug stopped 
up so tight that nothing can get in, while 
the whole bottom of the jug, meaning Key 
West, is wide open. There is only one 
way to plug this open bottom: A fumiga¬ 
tion house large enough to fumigate the 
entire ferry load of freight cars at one 
time. Such houses are operated by the 
government on the Mexican border, where 
there is great danger of the pink boll 
worm gaining a new foothold in Texas in 
freight cars from Mexico. These houses 
give excellent results. Some day, maybe, 
there will be enough interest taken by the 
people of Florida to see that such a plant is 
established at Key West. Quite recently 
the inspectors at Port Tampa intercepted 
a passenger from Cuba with four small 
avocado trees in his possession. The trees 
bore a certificate issued by the Cuban in¬ 
spectors to the effect that they were ap¬ 
parently free from injurious insect pests 
and plant diseases. An examination of 
the trees, however, showed that they were 
infested with the black fly eggs. Here is 
the interesting point about this shipment; 
The trees were to be planted out near Ft. 
Myers. Can you imagine what would 
have been the result if this material had 
not been intercepted, and had been set out 
as planned right in the edge of the citrus 
section? There were enough eggs on the 
leaves of the trees to insure the establish¬ 
ment of the black fly in that section, with 
the probable spread north to the entire cit¬ 
rus growing section. Needless to say, 
these trees were destroyed, and the owner 
arrested for violating one of the Plant 
Board rules. 
'‘For ways that are dark and tricks that 
are vain, the heathen Chinee” is a saint 
when compared to the insect pest that is 
trying to gain a foothold in a new coun¬ 
try. The Mediterranean fruit fly became 
established in the Bermudas when a ship 
loaded with infested fruit was washed 
ashore near St. George during a storm. 
Quite recently the California quarantine 
inspectors found two innocent-looking 
pieces of bamboo in the baggage of a pas¬ 
senger from Japan. As the quarantine 
inspectors are inquisitive chaps, they im¬ 
mediately connected the bamboo with a 
bug in some manner or form. A plug was 
discovered in the ends of the bamboo, 
which when removed, discovered a hollow 
chamber filled with citrus bud wood. The 
