SB 981 .fl5 1912b Copy 1 SB 981 .R5 1912b _ . > Congress, . ^^^^^^ ^^ ^.^^ ^.^.^^^^^^^^^, ^^. , x^r^ryjix.^ ^°Py ^ d Session. \ 1 No. 398. IMPORTATION AND RLOVEMENT OF PLANTvS, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES. March 8, 1912. — Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. Simmons, froni the Gbmmittoe on Agriciiltiuo. submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 21291.] The Committee on Agriculture, having had under cor^sideration the bill (H. R. 21291) to regulate the importation of nursery stock and other plants and plant ])roducts; to enable the Secretary of Agricul- ture to establish and maintain quarantine districts for plant diseases and insect pests; to permit and regidate the movement of fruits, plants, and vegetables therefrom, and for other purposes, report thereon with the recommendation that it be amended as follows: Page 1, line 5, strike out the word ''and " and insert the word "any." Page 5, line 2, strike out the word "further." Page 5, line 20, strike out the comma after "disease." Page 5, line 21, insert a comma after "insect." The committee recommend that the bill as thus amended do pass. EXPLANATION OF THE BILL. In general, tlte Federal powers granted in this act relate to the establishment of foreign and domestic C|uarantine, the issuance of pejmits, foreign certification, and the distribution to the several State or Territorial oiFicials of exact information in regard to origin, arrival, and destination of importations. To the several States are left the responsi])ility of inspection at destination of imported stock and the cleaning up and disinfection of local quarantined districts. Section 1 pi-ovides that "nursery stock" may be imported only after a permit has been taken out and wlien accompanied by a cer- tificate showing foreign inspection. The issuance of the permit is mandatory when the conditions of tlie section have been met. Tl(e 2 IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS^ ETC. section provides, liowever, that for scientific or experimental pur- poses plants may be imported by the Department of Agriculture with- out the permit. Provision is also made for the importation without certificate of inspection, under proper regulations, from countries where there are no means for such inspection. While the issuance of the permit required in this section is manda- tory, it nevertheless affords a large protection, in that it gives oppor- tunity for a warning, if necessary, to be sent to the importer before he makes his importation if tlie goods covered are deemed dangerous, and also opportunity to warn the State official long in advance of the intended importation of stock if the same again are deemed likely to carry danger. Furthermore, the foreign certification can be made to have dis- tinct value, inasmuch as such certification to be acceptable can be requiied to be made by proper and accredited foreign officers, and of such character as to give assurance that the stock covered is clean. Finally, the permit and the foreign certification will act of them- selves very largely to prevent the importation of refuse stock by department stores or such as is now shipped in by foreign dealers to be sold at auction, and very much miscellaneous small importations, which have an especial danger from the difficulty of following up and inspecting such sendings. Section 2. Notification section; requires notification from customs officers, fu'st receivers of stock, person or firm offering it for transpor- tation, and transporting firm or other carrier, the object being to fully advise the Secretary of Agiiculture of the arrival and transportation of such stock to destination, information now onl}^ partially available. This information is to be transmitted by the department to the proper State officials so that all imjjorted stock can be inspected by the latter. Tlie Department of Agriculture acts merely as a clearing house for information, and the actual inspection of imported stock is left entirely to State officials. Section 3. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of entry. Section 4. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of interstate transportation. Section 5. After due notice and public hearing, makes provision for the inclusion under the foregoing provisions of the act, when necessary, of the plants and plant products excepted in the definition of "nursery stock" as given in section 6. The quarantine sections, 7 and 8, and the subsequent sections of the act apply to all plants and plant products, including these excepted articles. These excepted articles will normalh' carry little danger of intro- ducing new insects or diseases, and therefore, to save both unneces- sary Federal supervision, extending to thousands of small seed packets and similar importations, and also to avoid placing unnecessary bur- dens on importers of such articles, the requirements of the first four sections, relating to the permit, notification, and labeling, are not to be placed on these articles except when some real danger develops. Section 6 defines "nursery stock" as used in this act. Section 7. After due notice and public hearing, provides for quar- antining foreign districts to exclude plants or plant products which may convey fruit diseases or insect pests new to or not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed M'ithin and throughout the United States. Excludes such articles, which are to be specifically enumer- A _ ^ IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS, ETC. 3 ated, until quarantine is withdrawn, even though such articles are offered for entry accompanied by a foreign certificate. Provides that, in its application to the white-pine blister rust, the potato wart, and the Mediterranean fruit fly, the quarantine provisions of this section shall become applicable upon the enactment of the bill. In the quarantine provisions of this section the particular plant conveying the danger is excluded, hut no unnecessar)' restrictions are to be placed upon other plants not affected by such quarantine. The particular wording adopted in reference to such quarantine, namely, "diseases or insect pests new to or not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United States," will enable the Department of Agriculture to declare a quarantine against any foreign pest whatsoever which should be legitimately subject to quarantine — in other words, to any pest which has not already been distributed and established throughout the United States — so that there would be no territory unaffected to which Federal quarantine could properh' apply. Section 8. . After due notice and public hearing, provides for do- mestic quarantine for any dangerous plant disease or insect infesta- tion new to or not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United States. Notice of such quarantine is to be given to common carriers and published in newspapers. Plants or plant products so quarantined in relation to interstate shipments not to be offered for shipment, received for transportation, nor moved. The particular wording relating to domestic quarantine in this section has the same breadth of application as has the similar wording in section 7 in relation to foreign quarantine. Section 9 provides for the making of rules and regulations for the carrying out of the purposes of the act. Section 10. Penalties. Section 11 defines "territory" as used in the act. Section 12 provides for the establishment of a deflnite Federal horticultural board in the Department of Agriculture to carry out the provisions of the act. vSection 13. Appropriation. Section 14. Date Vviien the act becomes efl'ective. CONDITIONS WHICH CALL FOR THIS LEGISLATION. The United States is the only great pov/er without protection from the importatioi> of insect-infested or diseased plant stock. Referring to European powers only, Austria-Hungary, France, German}^, Holland, Switzerland, and Turkey prohibit absolutely the entry from the United States of all nursery stock, and admit fruit only when the most rigid examination, shows freedom from infestation ; and most of the others have very strict quarantine and inspection laws, and the same is true of the important British and other colonial possessions. The United States thus becomes a sort of "dumping ground" for refuse stock. Diseased live stock niay be, and are, excluded by law, but diseased and insect-infested plants have no bar against introduc- tion. 4 IMPOKTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS, ETC. More than half of the miportant msect pests of fruits and farm crops are of foreign origin, and these now occasion a tax of nearly half a billion dollars annually. A properly enforced quarantine and inspection law in the past would have excluded many, if not most, of these insect enemies and also many plant diseases. Wliile, as just indicated, most of the important seriously injurious insects and plant diseases, which are now levying an enormous yearly tax on agricultural productions, have been introduced from foreign countries, there are still manv other insect pests and plant diseases which may be excluded. There are important orchard and fruit pests in Europe and Asia, the entry of which can be guarded against. There is also just noy>' especial danger from introductions from Asia, where conditions are little known and where pests are very apt to be new and unusually destructive. An illustration of this is seen in the San eTose scale, which was intro- duced into tliis country from north China, and has been carried into every State in the Union on nurser}- stock. This pest has already cost the orchardists of tliis countrv $50,000,000, and is adding to this sum at the rate of $5,000,000 each year. This $5,000,000 annual charge comes from the actual cost of spraying operations, which are absolutely necessary to keep the trees alive and productive, and from the shrinkage in quantity and value of the fruit yield. The alfalfa leaf weevil is another of the recently introduced foreign insect pests, and its ravages in the great alfalfa regions of Utah are now well known, and there are no means of preventing its spreading ultimately throughout all the great alfalfa regions of the Pacific coast and the Mississippi Valley. Still another recently introduced pest is the European elm-bark beetle which has become estabhshed in ^lassachusetts, and is the chief agent in the destruction of the historic elms of Cambridge. The moribund or dead trunks of these splendid old trees are now being chopped down and removed at a cost merely for the removal of upward of $30 per tree. This new elm pest may in the end prove almost as serious an enemy to the elms in this country as the chestnut disease has proved to chestnut forests in the eastern United States, and this chestnut disease is also of comparatively recent foreign origin. Many other illustrations could be given, but these are perhaps suffi- cient to illustrate the type of dangers which should at once be guarded against . As already indicated, much could have been saved to the agricul- tural and natural forest resources of this country if legislation similar to this had been early enacted. Many of the plant diseases and insect enemies of the Old World now established in this country could un- doubtedly have been excluded and this would have given this country a tremendous advantage for a long period, in augmenting the quantity produced and lessening the cost of production. The past can not be altogether remedied, but the future can be safeguarded, and this act will go a long way toward accomplishing this end. The enactment of this legislation is especially urgent at this time to exclude several immediate dangers of the gravest character, as well as to afford geneial protection in the future against all important plant diseases and insect pests. The so-called Mediterranean fruit fl}' has recently become estab- lislied in tlie Plawaiian Islands, and unless quarantined against is IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS^ ETC. 5 certain to be brought into this country from tli.ose ishmds or from other quarters of tiie workl where it lias gained foothold. It is a more serious fruit pest tlxan any now occurring, on this continent. Its larvfe, or maggots, infest all sorts of fruits and many vegetables, and the presence of tliese in the fruit can not be determined except by cutting tb.e fruit oi)en. Its introduction would be most disastrous to tb.e citrous and deciduous fruit ranches of tb.e Pacific coast and. in fact, to all our fruit-grov/ing interests. Another very grave danger at tliis time is the likehood of the intro- duction of the potato wart witli imported potatoes. Tlie short crop of last year has already led to enormous importations of foreign pota- toes, and these importations have come in many instances from dis- tricts where this dreaded disease is known to exist. We are, for example, now receiving quantities of potatoes from Newfoundland, wliere the potato disease is so firmly establislied that her neighbor, Carikda, has strictly rjuarantined against all potatoes from this island, witli tlie result t.bat we are now getting all tj'e surplus. It is signifi- cant also that Canada is now considering t)i.e establisbment of quar- antine against potatoes from t-ie United vStates because t'lis country is allowino; tine importation of diseased potatoes from Newfoundland. The establishmoit of tliis potato disease in tb.e great potato-growing regions of the United States would result in losses almost beyond computation. It is a soil disease, and once in the soil it remains for a period of from 8 to 10 years, and puts an e^'ectual check on potato production, invading and destroying the potato tubers. Another grave danger is tlie likelihood of the establishment in' tliis country is of the wliite-pine blister rust, wliicit has caused enormous losses in certain districts in Europe — particularly to seedling i^ine stock. Tins disease has during the last few years been im"-">orted on seedling pines into many of our States. Earnest e'^'ort inis been made to destro}'- all such infested shipments, and it is hoped that this work has been successful. If this disease becomes establislied in this country it will result in enormous losses to our i^ine forests. In the case of this pine rust, most of the infested seedlings have come from a single nursery and district in Germany — a district which is more or less locally quarantined against, with the natural residt of making us the recij:ients of its diseased products. A law under which such districts and such products can be absolutely quarantined against is imperatively needed. The danger which led to the first attempt to get tiiis legislation is still in existence — that is, the likelihood of the establishment through- out the United States of the gypsy and brown-tail moths with nurser}' stock imported from Europe. During the last few years such infested material has been carried to no less than 23 diTerent States. In 1909, 7,000 nests, containing nearly 3,000,000 larvae, were found in ship- ments into New York State — seed material enough to infest the whole United States within a few years; and, as already noted, such infested shipments have been sent to many other States, extending from the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains. So far as pos- sible, this imported stock has been examined and the infesting larvae removed and destroyed by State authorities or, where these were not available, by employees of the Bureau of Entomology of the Depart- ment of Agriculture. It is by no means certain, however, that all 6 IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS, ETC. infested material lias been inspected, and tlie insect may now be established at remote interior points. It is scarcely necessary to comment on the danger to this country from the careless introduction and wide distribution of these two orchard and forest pests. In a limited district in New England more than a million dollars a year has been spent for a long period in a mere effort to control these tw^o insects, and the General Gov- ernment is now^ appropriating .1300,000 annually to endeavor to clear them from the border of the main liighways and thus check their spread. These expenditures do not take into account the actual damage done, but they do serve as a measure of the danger to the W'hole country from the recent distribution of these two insects on imported nursery stock. In this bill the quarantine provisions are made immediately applicable to three of these dangers, namely, the Mediterranean fruit fly, the potato w^art, and the w4iite-pine blister rust. With the exception of importing nurserymen there has been practically universal demand for this legislation. The horticul- tural societies of many States have demanded it and have come solidly to its support. Resolutions favoring this legislation have been passed b}" numerous bodies of tliis character, and the horti- cultural and entomological officials of practically every State in the Union have long been urging its enactment. The opposition to this legislation in the past has been on the part of import mg nurserymen and, through these, of the National Asso- ciation of Nurserymen, the nursery interests fearing that such a law would put unnecessary burdens and restrictions on their business. The educational work of the last few^ years has demonstrated to most of these nurserymen that their fears have been groundless, and nur- sery associations of whole States have given emphatic support to this legislation. This^ bill has been discussed very fully with the committee on legislation of the National Association of Nurserymen, and this committee, for this National Nurserymen's Association, has accepted the bill as satisfactory to them and as desirable legislation. There is, therefore, now% so far as w^e know^, no antagonism anywhere to this measure; and it has practically unanimous support from all the vast fruit-growing, forest, and allied interests in this country. o LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 020 973 098 4