June, ’23 
NEWELL: TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL QUARANTINES 
263 
President E. C. Stackman : The next is a paper by Mr.Wilmon Newell. 
TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL QUARANTINES 
(Summary) 
By Wilmon Newell, Gainesville, Florida 
Abstract 
Quarantines to prevent the introduction of insect pests and plant diseases from 
foreign countries are of prime importance. The southern states are more vitally 
concerned with quarantine protection than are the northern states as insects have, 
in the South, a large number of host plants and control measures must be applied 
during a longer growng season. The Federal Horticultural Board is the mainstay 
of the country in the maintenance of effective quarantines and while its work has 
been invaluable and its accomplishments significant it is still far short of what it 
should be. Education of the public as to the importance of quarantine protection 
and more liberal appropriations for the work of the Federal Horticultural Board are 
urged. 
Quarantines against foreign insect pests and plant diseases assume 
importance in proportion to (1) the degree of danger of their intro¬ 
duction and (2) the opportunities presented by existing conditions for 
the increase of, and damage by, any given insect or disease after its 
introduction and establishment. 
Officials and residents of the interior states have not, as a rule, ap¬ 
preciated the importance of quarantine protection, perhaps on account 
of their not having had the opportunity to observe at first hand the 
numerous avenues through which pests may be introduced. Such 
quarantine protection is, however, of vital importance to the interior 
as well as the coastal states. Serious losses to the crops or fruits of one 
section of the country are, in the last analysis, felt by all. Destruction 
of the citrus fruit crop of California or Florida, for example, would be 
followed by a higher price to the consumer for apples, peaches and 
other fruits. Also, a pest established in one state finds many oppor¬ 
tunities for spread to the other states. 
The southern states are more vitally affected by introduced insect, 
pests than any other portion of the country. This is true, not necessarily 
because an insect species, per se, is any more destructive under southern 
conditions than under northern ones—and this is a point which we do 
not concede—but because there is in the South a greater number of in¬ 
jurious species and the addition of each additional one but adds to the 
load which must be carried by the farmer and fruit grower; because the: 
larger number of possible host plants increases the difficulty of applying 
control measures and because the longer growing season for crops makes 
necessary a greater expenditure and more continuous effort to maintain a 
