We think that here the investigation required by the Washington law and the investigation actually made into the existence of this pest and its geographical location makes the law a real quarantine law, and not a mere inhibition against importation of alfalfa from a large part of the country without regard to the conditions which might make its importation dangerous.

The second objection to the validity of this Washington law and the action of the State officers, however, is more formidable. Under the language used in Gibbons v. Ogden, supra, and the Minnesota Rate Cases, supra, the exercise of the police power of quarantine, in spite of its interfering with interstate commerce, is permissible under the Interstate Commerce clause of the Federal Constitution "subject to the paramount authority of Congress if it decides to assume control."

By the Act of Congress of August 20, 1912, 37 Stat. 315, c. 308, as amended by the Act of March 4, 1917, 39 Stat. 1165, c. 179, it is made unlawful to import or offer for entry into the United States, any nursery stock unless permit had been issued by the Secretary of Agriculture under regulations prescribed by him.

Section 2 makes it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to notify the Secretary of Agriculture of the arrival of any nursery stock and forbids the shipment from one State or Territory or District of the United States into another of any nursery stock imported into the United States without notifying the Secretary of Agriculture, or at his direction, the proper State, Territorial or District official to which the nursery stock was destined. Whenever the Secretary of Agriculture shall determine that such nursery stock may result in the entry of plant diseases or insect pests, he shall promulgate his determination of this, but shall give due notice and a public hearing at which any interested party may appear before the promulgation.

Section 7 provides that whenever, in order to prevent the introduction into the United States of any tree, plant or fruit disease, or any injurious insect, not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed within and through the United States, the Secretary shall determine that it is necessary to forbid the importation into the United States, he shall promulgate such determination, and such importations are thereafter prohibited.

་

Section 8 of the Act was amended by the Agricultural Appropriation Act of March 4, 1917, and reads as follows: "Sec. 8. That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized and directed to quarantine any State, Territory, or District of the United States, or any portion thereof, when he shall determine that such quarantine is necessary to prevent the spread of a dangerous plant disease or insect infestation, new to or not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United States; and the Secretary of Agriculture is directed to give notice of the establishment of such quarantine to common carriers doing business in or through such quarantined area, and shall publish in such newspapers in the quarantined area as he shall select notice of the establishment of quarantine. That no person shall ship or offer for shipment to any common carrier, nor shall any common carrier receive for transportation or transport, nor shall any person carry or transport from any quarantined State or Territory or District of the United States, or from any quarantined portion thereof, into or through any other State or Territory or District, any class of nursery stock or any other class of plants, fruits, vegetables, roots, bulbs, seeds, or other plant products, or any class of stone or quarry products, or any other article of any character whatsoever, capable of carrying any dangerous plant disease or insect infestation, specified in the notice of quarantine except as hereinafter provided. That it shall be unlawful to

100569°-26 7

move, or allow to be moved, any class of nursery stock or any other class of plants, fruits, vegetables, roots, bulbs, seeds, or other plant products, or any class of stone or quarry products, or any other article of any character whatsoever, capable of carrying any dangerous plant disease or insect infestation, specified in the notice of quarantine hereinbefore provided, and regardless of the use for which the same is intended, from any quarantined State or Territory or District of the United States or quarantined portion thereof, into or through any other State or Territory or District, in manner or method or under conditions other than those prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of Agriculture, when the public interests will permit, to make and promulgate rules and regulations which shall permit and govern the inspection, disinfection, certification, and method and manner of delivery and shipment of the class of nursery stock or of any other class of plants, fruits, vegetables, roots, bulbs, seeds, or other plant products, or any class of stone or quarry products, or any other article of any character whatsoever, capable of carrying any dangerous plant disease or insect infestation, specified in the notice of quarantine hereinbefore provided, and regardless of the use for which the same is intended, from a quarantined State or Territory or District of the United States, or quarantined portion thereof, into or through any other State or Territory or District, and the Secretary of Agriculture shall give notice of such rules and regulations as hereinbefore provided in this section for the notice of the establishment of quarantine: Provided, That before the Secretary of Agriculture shall promulgate his determination that it is necessary to quarantine any State, Territory, or District of the United States, or portion thereof, under the authority given in this section, he shall, after due notice to interested parties, give a public hearing under such rules and regulations

as he shall prescribe, at which hearing any interested party may appear and be heard, either in person or by attorney."

Section 10 of the Act provides that any person who shall violate any provisions of the Act, or who shall forge, counterfeit or destroy any certificate provided for in the Act or in the regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. It is made the duty of the United States attorneys diligently to prosecute any violations of this Act which are brought to their attention by the Secretary of Agriculture, or which come to their notice by other means; and for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall appoint from existing bureaus in his office, a commission of five members employed therein.

It is impossible to read this statute and consider its scope without attributing to Congress the intention to take over to the Agricultural Department of the Federal Government the care of the horticulture and agriculture of the States, so far as these may be affected injuriously by the transportation in foreign and interstate commerce of anything which by reason of its character can convey disease to and injure trees, plants or crops. All the sections look to a complete provision for quarantine against importation into the country and quarantine as between the States under the direction and supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture.

The courts of Washington and the counsel for the State rely on the decision of this Court in Reid v. Colorado, 187 U. S. 137, as an authority to sustain the validity of the Washington law before us. The Reid Case involved the constitutionality of a conviction of Reid for violation of

an Act of Colorado to prevent the introduction of infectious or contagious diseases among the cattle and horses of that State. The law made it unlawful for any person, association or corporation to bring or drive any cattle or horses, suffering from such disease, or which had within ninety days prior thereto been herded or brought into contact with any other cattle or horses, suffering from such disease, into the State, unless a certificate or bill of health could be produced from the state veterinary sanitary board that the cattle and horses were free from all infectious or contagious diseases. It was urged that it was inconsistent with the Federal Animal Industry Act. This directed a study of contagious and communicable diseases of animals and the best method of treating them, by the Federal Commissioner of Agriculture, to be certified to the executive authority of each State, and the coöperation of such authority was invited. If the authorities of the State adopted the plans and methods advised by the Department, or if such authorities adopted measures of their own which the Department approved, then the money appropriated by Congress was to be used in conducting investigations and in aiding such disinfection and quarantine measures as might be necessary to prevent the spread of the diseases in question from one State or Territory into another. This Court held that Congress did not intend by the Act to override the power of the States to care for the safety of the property of their people, because it did not undertake to invest any officer or agent of the Department with authority to go into a State and without its assent take charge of the work of suppressing or extirpating contagious, infectious or communicable diseases there prevailing, or to inspect cattle or give a certificate of freedom from disease for cattle, of superior authority to state certificates.

It is evident that the federal statute under consideration in the Reid Case was an effort to induce the States to