control of the importation of nursery stock from foreign countries, the provisions of the Act and the regulations drawn thereunder are coming to be better understood. After a little over two months' experience and with the corrections which will be made as a result of that experience, there is every promise that this service will work out successfully, and give in large measure the protection needed. The heartiest of coöperation has been received from the Customs Division of the Treasury Department and this division has worked with the department to develop and perfect methods which will give all the information and protection possible under the Act.

The general effect of the enforcement of the Federal Act has been very helpful in stimulating better state inspection work, and encouraging steps are being taken in several states to secure suitable legislation and appropriation for such work. This interest has been very considerably augmented by the discovery, as a result of information obtained as an outcome of the act, of the entry of infested nursery stock into several states.

The Federal Act has also very greatly stimulated foreign countries to do better work of inspection and to provide suitable legislation to meet the requirements of the Act. The result of this is already shown in the better quality of imported nursery stock and its general freedom from infestation.

GENERAL POST OFFICE COOPERATION

The Postmaster General has coöperated very heartily with the Department of Agriculture in adjusting the postal service and issuing special orders to facilitate the enforcement of the Plant Quarantine Act in relation to nursery stock or other plant products shipped through the mails. He has ordered that all packages containing nursery stock or other plant products covered by the Federal Plant Quarantine Act or quarantines promulgated thereunder, shall be plainly marked, indicating contents, the names of the sender and consignee, as well as the destination, and that each shall bear a certificate of inspection. This applies both to domestic and foreign shipments.

The postal services of foreign countries have been notified of the requirements of the Federal Plant Quarantine Act, and postmasters of this country who may receive imported nursery stock have been notified of the requirements under the Act, which are a condition of entry and delivery of such stock.

Special notification has been given to all postmasters of Hawaii, advising them of the Mediterranean fruit fly quarantine, to prevent any fruit being shipped through the mails in violation of this quarantine. Similar notification has been sent to postmasters in New Eng

land in relation to the gipsy and brown-tail moth quarantine. An order has been issued permitting postmasters to notify the proper state officials of the arrival and delivery of nursery stock, so that such state officials may, if they see fit, make examination of nursery stock. thus imported through the mails. This last has been one of the loopholes which was most difficult to cover on account of the theory of the inviolability of mail matter. All of these orders of the Post Office Department are given in an appendix to this report.

EVASIONS AND VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW

During the first few months of the enforcement of the Federal Plant Quarantine Act a number of forms of violations or evasions of the law have come to our notice. Some of these have been due to ignorance, and some possibly have been malicious. In the main, however, it should be stated that the nurserymen and brokers have shown a keen desire to comply with the law and regulations. Many of the discrepancies noted below will probably be prevented as a result of the amendments now made to the regulations and the new form of reporting provided for. The following items under this head may be enumerated:

1. ENTRY BY CUSTOMS OFFICIALS AND IMPORTERS IN IGNORANCE OF THE LAW. A few instances of this kind have come to our notice, but the amount of such violations is negligible.

The smaller or interior customs offices, which may receive imported nursery stock very rarely, may be a little difficult to keep up to the full standard of the enforcement of the Act and regulations. No difficulty will probably be experienced in any of the twenty-five or thirty principal customs ports after the regulations have once been assimilated.

2. ENTRY OF NURSERY STOCK WITHOUT PROPER MARKINGS OR CERTIFICATION.-- A good many violations of this kind have come to our notice, most of them probably the result of ignorance of the law. The Department of Agriculture has no means of determining as to whether or not the regulations as to marking and certification have been complied with, except through the reports received from state inspectors, and perhaps occasional examination of goods as they are landed at one port or another. In the matter of certification, under the regulation to take effect July 1, 1913, the parent certificate of inspection must accompany the invoice, and becomes a necessary paper of entry. After the date mentioned therefore goods without certification cannot be entered, and any failure in this regard will naturally be brought to the attention of this department by the collector of customs.

We have also been advised that many of the certificates of inspection attached to packages are "New York" editions, but this sort of fraud will be stopped under the new regulations.

There has been very little difficulty in the matter of permits and consular declarations, these features being governed directly by customs officers.

3. FAILURE IN NOTIFICATIONS.-There have been a good deal of omissions in the notifications required to be sent out by the person taking the goods from customs and paying the duty, namely, the notification to the Secretary of Agriculture and to the proper state inspector. Much of this failure has been occasioned by ignorance of the law on the part of the importers or brokers. The new arrangement entered into with the Treasury Department requires the importer or broker to transmit his notice to the Department of Agriculture through the collector of customs, and this notice is made a necessary paper of entry. This plan should insure in the future notification to the Department of Agriculture of every lot of nursery stock removed from a port of entry and will make it possible for the state inspector to receive notification from this department, at least, of all imported nursery stock consigned to his state, and will further be an absolute check on the notification which the broker is still required to send direct to each state inspector.

4. INTERSTATE DISTRIBUTION OF IMPORTED NURSERY STOCK BEFORE INSPECTION.-The Federal law requires that imported nursery stock shall not go into interstate transportation without a notification of such shipment being sent to the Department of Agriculture and to the proper state inspector. This applies not only to the port of entry as to first destination, but also to any reshipment, unless and until said stock has been inspected by some state inspector. There have been a number of violations of this provision. Nursery stock has been sent from the port of entry to the first consignee and properly reported both to this department and to the state inspector. This first consignee, has, however, probably in ignorance of the law, in several instances reshipped such stock to other states prior to its having been inspected without making the proper notification. This is a violation. which is very difficult to prevent, and can only be checked up by the reports of such reshipments by the inspectors of the states to which the goods are sent. Discovery of such reshipments has been made by such inspectors accidentally or under local regulations requiring the reporting of arrival of all nursery stock. All instances of this kind should be promptly reported to the Department of Agriculture so that the question of violations can be taken up with the parties at fault and a continuance thereof prevented.

5. IMPORTATION OF PROHIBITED ARTICLES.-Violations of this kind . can only be checked by state inspection. They may be accomplished. by false labeling or through the ignorance of customs officials regarding prohibited plants.

6. ENTRY OF NURSERY STOCK UNDER FALSE DESIGNATION TO ESCAPE THE REQUIREMENTS OF PERMIT AND NOTIFICATION.-Two or three instances have come to our notice where nursery stock has been designated as bulbs or herbaceous plants, apparently to avoid by this means the requirements as to permit and subsequent notifications. Fortunately, suspicions were aroused in these instances, with the result that violations of this kind will probably not be attempted again by these particular individuals. The only means of checking up against fraud of this sort is to make occasional inspection of imported bulbs and other herbaceous plants. This duty naturally falls to the state inspectors.

In conclusion, it may be said that the control of imported nursery stock is rapidly working out in a thoroughly satisfactory manner in so far as the proper labeling and certification and other conditions of entry are concerned. The real utility of the Act, as it relates to imported nursery stock, must, however, finally depend on the character of the inspection given such stock by the several state inspectors. The Department of Agriculture will make every effort to encourage and aid the different states in getting proper legislation and funds to carry out this work of inspection. A feature which should be made a part of all state laws is the provision requiring the holding of all imported nursery stock, if possible, in original packages until the state inspector is on the ground to make his examinations. If not so held, the law should at least require that such importations, if opened up, should be heeled in or kept together in a fairly isolated place until inspection by the state official is possible.

The quarantine powers given in the Act, both foreign and domestic, are the ones which will bring the greatest protection to this country, and constitute the principal federal power of control given in the Act. Such quarantines, being entirely under federal supervision and enforced by federal officers, present no divided responsibility, and should succeed if sufficient means for their enforcement is provided by Congress.

APPENDIX: POST OFFICE ORDERS IN RELATION TO NURSERY STOCK

The following are the orders recently issued by the Post Office Department in relation to the Federal Plant Quarantine Act and the several quarantines promulgated thereunder.

TYPE OF LETTER SENT TO ALL POSTMASTERS OF OFFICES LIKELY TO RECEIVE IMPORTED NURSERY STOCK

Sir: Your attention is called to the enclosed copy of a Notice to Postmasters regarding the importation in the mails of nursery stock under the provisions of "The Plant Quarantine Act" of August 20, 1912.

A copy of the rules and regulations issued by the Secretary of Agriculture for carrying out the Act in question is also enclosed herewith, together with a circular of information to importers of nursery stock issued by the Federal Horticultural Board and approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. These enclosures will enable you to carry out the provisions of the Act so far as it affects mail importations, and will also furnish you with information to answer inquiries which may be made. Please cause due notice of the same to be taken at your office, and advise me of your having done so.

Very respectfully,

A. A. FISHER, Acting Second Assistant Postmaster General.

Enclosures.

The notice to postmasters referred to in the above quoted letter follows:

NURSERY STOCK FROM ABROAD

November 22, 1912.

Postmasters and other postal officials are informed that, under the provisions of The Plant Quarantine Act of August 20, 1912, nursery stock, which includes all field-grown florists' stock, trees, shrubs, vines, cuttings, grafts, scions, buds, fruit pits and other seeds of fruit and ornamental trees or shrubs, and other plants and plant products for propagation, except field, vegetable and flower seeds, bedding plants, and other herbaceous plants, bulbs, and roots, may be imported into the United States only under the conditions set forth in that Act and the rules and regulations for its enforcement issued by the Secretary of Agriculture. All articles received in the mails from abroad and containing or supposed to contain nursery stock must, therefore, be submitted to customs officials for fulfilment of the formalities of entry required by the Act and in the same manner as articles whose contents are dutiable or supposed to be dutiable.

A. A. FISHER,

Acting Second Assistant Postmaster General.