Mr. Chairman: REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE Your committee after considering the action taken by this Association and the Association of Economic Entomologists, recommends that Mr. J. G. Sanders be selected for permanent Secretary for our section. The First Vice-President, Prof. E. L. Worsham, of the Economic Association will serve as the Chairman for our next meeting. Respectfully submitted, F. L. WASHBURN. T. B. SYMONS. N. E. SHAW. The report of the Committee was adopted, and it was moved and carried that the Secretary cast the ballot for the election of Professor Sanders for Secretary. This concluded the business transacted at the meeting. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS BY T. J. HEADLEE, New Brunswick, N. J. Fellow-members of the American Association of Official Horticultural Inspectors: Your president desires to express himself as deeply appreciative of the honor that you have seen fit to confer upon him. It has not been customary for the chairmen of this body to make lengthy addresses and it is not purposed to violate the custom in this instance. Your chairman desires to invite your attention to an interpretation of the duties of the horticultural inspection service based on a fundamental conception of the end it is to serve and to make certain suggestions for its improvement. The origin and distribution of animal and plant species in a state of nature has been in progress from earliest time. Nature in the form of climatic factors and physical features has set the bounds of the distribution of each species. In general, species arise and distribute themselves as widely as these factors operating on them directly and through their food plants and their enemies, indirectly, will permit. It is, therefore, to be expected that, climate not forbidding, the insect and fungous enemies of the specific plant will usually be able to follow it to the ends of the earth. When man began to transport plants from all parts of the world, he incidentally carried along their insect and fungous enemies. Considering our own country, the plants usually came fairly free from their enemies; but repeated importations finally brought them in sufficient. numbers to form destructive pests. Usually the damage done by them to their old food plants has been greater than that which ordinarily took place in the country from which they both came, and has continued to be so until their predaceous and parasitic foes have become sufficiently numerous, or native forms have learned how to use the pest or both. Not only have the injurious species imported with specific plants attacked these plants; but in some instances they have found native plants to their liking. Incidental to the importation of plants, species of injurious insects and fungous diseases not in any way injurious to the specific plants with which they came have been brought in. Some species coming to us in this way have proven very injurious to other species of useful plants. If this process of distribution be allowed to go on it seems entirely probable that every injurious insect and every fungous disease will become as widely distributed throughout the earth as the climate will permit, because man has removed the physical-feature barrier. It is the business of the inspection service to discover the injurious forms that are thus being distributed and to take such measures as will prove a barrier to their further spread. This duty the service has well understood and has tried to fulfill. Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, all efforts toward stopping the distribution of serious insect pests and plant diseases have resulted, or promise to result, merely in delaying the spread of the organism. This result has, of course, been due to a variety of causes; but chiefly to the fact that natural forces operate for twenty-four hours every day in the year and every year in the century, while horticultural inspection operates only intermittently. In the light of past experience, it seems probable that the distribution. of every injurious insect and every plant disease will coincide with that of its food plants in so far as climate will permit, and that all the horticultural inspection service will be able to do will be to delay the distribution of dangerous species until their normal environment of enemies can be developed and efficient artificial measures for their control discovered. It is well to recognize our limitations and not allow ourselves in the heat of argument before committees on appropriations to promise eradication if only enough of the "sinews of war" is put into our hands. Whether the inspector will or no, the general public and the fruit grower look upon his certificate as a guarantee of freedom from injurious insects and plant diseases. It seems likely that the time is not far distant when in his full capacity of nursery, fruit planting and fruit inspector, the official horticultural inspector will be held responsible by the public for the sort of fruit with which it is fed. Your present chairman is in entire sympathy with the contention of our ex-president and fellow member, Mr. Franklin Sherman, Jr., of North Carolina, that the certificates which we issue should mean exactly what they say. The business should be so managed that the certificate should be a guarantee in fact as well as in opinion. The official horticultural inspector c'early owes a service to the nurseryman, for he is an absolutely necessary factor. The inspector should so clean up the nurseries and their environs in his charge that clean stock from clean starts can be produced. He should make such arrangements that his nurserymen can obtain clean scions, buds, etc., from tested sources. Having made the production of clean stock possi- ble, he should then see that every nurseryman produces that kind of stock. The horticultural inspection service should see to it that the dealer. in nursery stock handles only that which comes from clean sources and that the same regulation is enforced where the importer is concerned. This past year has brought the enactment of a national inspection law, and some have this, the first year of its operation, found that it permitted them to protect their states better than has hitherto been possible. The interrelation between the national and state arms of the inspection service should be one of courteous coöperation. The present method adopted by the Federal Horticultural Board of having inspections within the limits of the states made by state inspectors, is one to be commended and one that should be continued. A little more of personal contact between the administrators of the national and state laws would lead to better understanding of plans and aims, and is highly desirable. The horticultural inspection service now needs to initiate a campaign of education on the danger of carrying plants in trunks, bags, or bundles in hand from one locality to another. This form of distribution we appear at present to have no other method of meeting. There are many mooted questions concerning the importance of this or that insect and of this or that plant disease. This association should make some provision, as by means of a standing committee, for an annual summarizing of the status of information with regard to the importance of each of these insects and diseases to horticulture in the various states of this country. The first duty of such a committee. would be to obtain by inquiry a concensus of opinion of the service on just what are the insects and diseases feared in the different sections of this country. The second duty would be to summarize and present the evidence on the dangerous nature of the doubtful forms, their present distribution, and the means of preventing their spread. There is a fundamental weakness in the present inspection service in that too few of our inspectors are trained plant pathologists. A few states have already provided men thoroughly trained both in injurious insects and plant diseases, and your chairman believes that this association should go on record as favoring this type of service. In closing these remarks it should be said: 1. That the general public and the fruit grower regard the inspector's certificate as a guarantee and the proper way to meet this responsibility is to make the certificate mean exactly what it says. 2. That the inspector should so clean up the nurseries and environs under his charge that his nurserymen can start with clean material and grow clean stock; that he should provide tested sources of growing material, and that he should then require his nurserymen to produce clean stock only. 3. That a standing committee from this association should be appointed for the purpose of summarizing the opinion of the service as to the seriousness of the various insects injurious to horticulture in the different parts of this country and for the purpose of summarizing annually the status of knowledge and opinion on the importance of insect pests and plant diseases about which there exists doubt, or that some other adequate provision should be made for placing this information in the hands of the inspectors. 4. That this association should go on record as favoring an inspection service composed of men properly trained in both injurious insects and plant diseases. THE FEDERAL PLANT QUARANTINE ACT By C. L. MARLATT, Chairman Federal Horticultural Board QUARANTINE ORDERS The act of August 20, 1912, was immediately effective as to certain quarantines, but not effective as to nursery stock until October 1. The following quarantine orders were promulgated as promptly as was possible under the provisions of the act: No. 1. White Pine Blister Rust, September 16, 1912. No. 4. Gipsy and Brown-Tail Moth, November 5, 1912. Two of these are foreign orders and are absolute prohibitions of the entry of the goods covered, namely, the quarantine relating to the white pine blister rust and the quarantine relating to the potato wart. These quarantines have effectually excluded the articles covered, and, through the hearty coöperation of customs officials, at a negligible cost to the government. The two domestic quarantines, namely, (1) against the Mediterranean fruit fly in Hawaii and (2) against a portion of New England on account of the gipsy and brown-tail moths, are in good working order. The Hawaiian quarantine is being enforced with the coöperation of the quarantine officials of the Territory of Hawaii and of the Pacific Coast States, notably California, at practically no cost to the Federal government. The heartiest of coöperation has been rendered both by the Territory of Hawaii, which is directly affected, and by the Pacific Coast States, as also by the transportation companies and customs service. The New England quarantine has only recently been established, but it promises to cause comparatively little friction and difficulty. It is being administered in coöperation with State Horticultural Inspection officers under the appropriation for the Prevention of Spread of Moths, and therefore does not draw on the funds appropriated for the Plant Quarantine Act. This New England work is closely in line with the work being done under the appropriation for the Prevention of the Spread of Moths, and it seems therefore perfectly legitimate and proper to have it carried by this fund and the existing New England force working thereunder. Notices have been recently issued on two proposed additional quarantines. One of these is in relation to the Mexican orange fruit fly, calling for a hearing on the subject at the Department of Agriculture, January 8, 1913; and the other is in relation to imported sugar cane, the hearing being called for at the Department of Agriculture, January 7, 1913. In addition to these, quarantine of some sort will probably ultimately be taken covering fruits from the Mediterranean countries occasionally imported into the United States which are known to be infested with the Mediterranean fruit fly in their place of origin, and similar quarantine of transpacific countries in relation to the Mediterranean and other fruit flies. The latter quarantine will be merely an extension of the Hawaiian quarantine to other Pacific islands and transpacific countries known to be infested with the Mediterranean fruit fly, from which fruit is occasionally brought as ship's stores or otherwise to Pacific ports. CONTROL OF IMPORTATION OF NURSERY STOCK While there has necessarily been a good deal of misunderstanding and some confusion incident to the installation of the new system of |