June, ’23 
mccubbin: domestic quarantines 
257 
have done an unnecessary or inadequate thing. This is valid reasoning 
as far as it concerns the past; but since we are today endeavoring to 
look forward rather than backward it is more appropriate to think in 
terms of future plans than in criticism of what has been. From this 
viewpoint the constructive thought that suggests itself is the extreme 
importance of plant disease and insect surveys in connection with the 
incipient stages of quarantines. We might venture to mention some 
cases which illustrate this point. The White Pine Blister Rust ex¬ 
emplifies clearly one extreme. In 1917 the United States and the Can¬ 
adian Government drew quarantine lines north and south through the 
prairie region, forbidding the passage westward across this line of ma¬ 
terials likely to carry the disease. The object was to protect the 
western pine region from the Rust which at that time had not been found 
there. In 1921 and 1922 the disease was found widely spread in British 
Columbia and the adjacent State of Oregon. We cannot help seeing 
now that at the critical period adequate provision was not made for 
scouting the western area. Similarly in the case of the Mexican Bean 
Beetle an area including several counties was quarantined, but later on 
this insect was discovered in several other distant localities and the 
quarantine had to be abandoned. Many other like cases will occur to 
everyone who is familiar with the past records. Leaving out of our 
thought entirely any consideration of the policy or methods involved,may 
we not draw from these cases the clear lesson that scouting and survey 
work on both extensive and intensive scales are of the highest im¬ 
portance, and should be intimately correlated with quarantines, either 
before they are actually placed or as soon as possible thereafter. 
During the last few years the survey situation has been vastly im¬ 
proved by the development and organization of special Federal agencies 
for survey work, and these have been correlated with State forces so as 
to function in an admirable manner. The methods and extent of the 
surveys in the Potato Wart problem, to mention only one of many, 
indicate the help that may be given to a quarantine problem by prompt 
and adequate surveys. The future holds promise that when a new pest, 
or disease appears we shall be able to marshal forces large enough to 
locate the extent of the infestation with a promptness and accuracy that 
have not been possible in the past. 
The second of the weaknesses referred to is the matter of what may be 
termed emergency research. When an economic pest appears we are 
suddenly confronted with the necessity for rapid decision, involving 
