IMPORTATION OF PLANTS, SEEDS, ETC., INTO ENGLAND AND WALES.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXIV, Issue 1, 20 January 1922, Page 60

IMPORTATION OF PLANTS, SEEDS, ETC., INTO ENGLAND AND WALES.

The following recently issued order of the British Ministry of Agriculture, governing the importation of plants, seeds, &c., into England and Wales, is published for general information : — The Destructive Insects and Pests Order of 1921, which comes into force on 1st October, 1921, prohibits the landing in England and Wales, from any country other than Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel Islands, of the following categories of plants, seeds, &c., unless each package in the consignment has attached thereto a copy of a certificate issued at the time of packing by a duly authorized official of the country from which it is exported : -All living plants with a persistent woody stem above ground, and parts of the same, except seeds, when for use in propagation, such as fruit-trees, stocks and stools, forest-trees, and ornamental shrubs, and grafts, layers, and cuttings thereof ; all potatoes, and all tubers, bulbs, rhizomes, corms, and hop stocks for planting ; seeds of onions and of leeks for sowing ; and gooseberries. . The inspection must be made not more than thirty days prior to the date of despatch, and the certificate must state that the plants, seeds, &c., are healthy as regards common pests generally, and particularly the following : Fruit-tree cankers (produced by Nectria ditissima Tub, or any species of Monilia); silver-leaf {Stereum purpureum Pers.) ; black-currant mite {Eriophyes ribis Nal.) ; woolly aphis {Eriosoma lanigerum Hausm.) ; all scale insects (Coccidae) ; brown-tail moth (Nygmia phoeorrhoea Dan.), {Euproctis chrysorrhoea) ; rhododendron-fly {Leptobyrsa (Stephanitis) rhododendri Horv.) ; potato blackleg {Bacillus atrosepticus Van. Hall) ; American gooseberry-mildew {Sphaerotheca morsuvae Berk.).

And also that they are free from the insects and pests specified below : Fungi Black-knot of plum and cherry (Plowrightia morbosa Sacc.) ; pear-blight {Bacillus amylovorus De Toui) ; chestnut-canker (Endothia parasitica (Murr.) Ander and Ander) ; wart disease of potatoes {Synchytrium endobioticum) ; onion and leek smut (Urocystis cepuloe Frost) ; downy mildew of hops (Peronoplasmopara humuli, Miy, &c., Taka). . Insects—Vine-louse {Phylloxera vastatrix Planch) ; American apple-capsids {Heterocordylus malimus Rent, and Lygidea mendax Rent.) ; . pear tingid {Stephanitis pyri Fab.) ; Colorado beetle {Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say.) ; plum curulio (Conotrachelus nenaphar Herbst.) ; potato-moth {Phthorimoea operculella Zell.) ; American luckey-moths (Malacosma americana Fab. and M. diastri Hubn.); Oriental fruit-moth (Cydia molesta Busck.) ; San Jose scale {Aspidiotus perniciosus Comst.) ; Japanese fruit-scale (Diaspis pentagona Newst.) ; apple fruit-fly {Rhagoletis pomonella Welsh); cherry fruit-flies (Rhagoletis cerasi Linn., R. cingulata Loew., and R. fausta Osten Saken) ; gooseberry . fruit-fly {Epochra canadensis Loew.). 1

Procedure to be followed by Consignors.

J ■ Persons sending to England and Wales consignments including any of the categories indicated in the first paragraph should take steps to ensure the inspection of the consignment by a duly authorized Government official, and obtain from him a certificate in the following terms :—•

Certificate of Examination of Plants, &c.

No. This is to certify that the stock included in the package or consignment described below was thoroughly inspected by , an Inspector of , on ; the stock was grown by at ■ , and was found or believed by . the Inspector to be healthy and free from any of the plant diseases or pests named in the Second Schedule to the above order.— (Signed) (Official status) Number and description of packages in consignment : Distinguishing marks: Nature of contents: Name and address of exporter: Name and address of consignee : Name of vessel : Port of shipment : Port of landing in England and Wales : Approximate date of arrival :

This certificate should be forwarded to the Horticulture Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Whitehall Place, London S.W. 1, at the time of issue. A copy must be affixed to each package in the consignment.

As indicated above, the inspection must be made not more than thirty days before the date of despatch. The certificate itself should be forwarded to the Horticulture Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Whitehall Place, London, England. Consignors should note that consignments arriving in England and Wales without the copy certificate attached to the packages will be detained at the port of entry, and will not be admitted into the country until they have been examined by an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and found to be healthy generally and especially free from the specified insects and pests. Consignments which are found to be unhealthy will be either disinfected, destroyed, or returned to the country of origin.

Potatoes.

In the case of potatoes, other than new potatoes (i.e., potatoes landed in England and Wales on or before 31st July in the year in which they have been lifted), the certificate must also declare that wart disease has not occurred on the place where the potatoes were grown, nor within 500 yards thereof (approximately half a kilometre). New potatoes must be accompanied by a declaration in writing by the exporter stating that they have been lifted in the current year.