321 APPENDIX.
When the regulations were first drafted in 1910, it was not
anticipated that the community, and consequently the plant
imports, would increase as they have done. Knowledge of the great
diversity of our agriculture and its importance in our economic life
has rapidly increased. Modern means of transportation have brought
about a greater dispersion of injurious pests and diseases. Hence,
the regulations have been altered, from time ‘to time, and in all
probability will be again altered, so that they may be kept up to date
and may afford the best protection possible.
It is laid down definitely in the regulations (para. 14) that all
plants and seeds imported into the Colony shall be examined by an
inspector and, as it is useless to have such work done in a spasmodic
way, and as all plans for plant protection by inspection should be
made so that they will continue unbroken for a long period of years,
qualified officers of the Department of Agriculture are gazetted as
inspectors in addition to the Plant Import Inspector who is stationed
at the Port of Entry.
The Plant Import Inspector examines all consignments which
arrive at the Coast. In addition to these large numbers of packages
of plants and seeds—especially seeds—arrive by parcel post and are
examined at the G.P.O., Nairobi, by one of the officers already
mentioned.
Any package or parcel containing any imported plant or seed
must bear on the outside thereof a label on which shall be set forth
(a) the full name of the variety and place of origin of such plant or
seed, (b) the name and address of the nursery or person supplying
such plant or seed.
Ordinary flowers or vegetable seeds, garden plants, ete., do not
require to have a permit although such a permit, first obtained,
greatly facilitates inspection.
For certain plants or seeds a permit must first be obtained from
the Director of Agriculture. The usual method is for the applicant
to write to the Director of Agriculture asking that a permit be
granted for the importation, stating number and varieties and the
source of origin. This application is scrutinised by the entomologist
and mycologist and may be passed, altered or have some special
conditions attached. A permit on the prescribed form is then made
out at the Head Office, a copy being sent to each of the following: The
applicant, the Plant Import Inspector, Entomologist, and Mycologist.
Thus as complete a record as possible is kept of all such importations.
Those plants and seeds for which a permit is necessary are
detailed in the regulations and are as follows: —
(a) Peach stones—Peach yellows.
(b) Apple and pear stocks or cuttings. The term *° stocks "
shall include young rooted plants for budding or grafting
purposes; woolly aphis; various fungi.
Potatoes—wart ~~ disease (synchytrium endobioticum ).
Permission, however, to import seed potatoes from the
United Kingdom will be granted if :
[. The variety thereof is included in a list published by
the Ministry of Agriculture of England and Wales of
varieties immune from wart disease.
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