811.612 Grapes–Spain/200a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain ( Bowers )
25. As a result of experiments carried on over a considerable period of time by the Bureau of Entomology the Department of Agriculture [Page 695] announced last night that it had decided to permit, effective May 1, 1934, grapes of the Vinifera type from regions in which the Mediterranean fruit fly occurs to be entered at the port of New York and such other northern ports as may subsequently be designated provided the grapes are packed in tight barrels or other approved containers so constructed as to prevent the escape, pending sterilization, of any stages of the Mediterranean fruit fly and are delivered within 24 hours from the time of unloading to an approved sterilization plant at which the grapes will be subjected to cooling until the approximate center of the fruit in the package reaches a temperature of 30°–31° Fahrenheit and will then be held at that temperature for 15 days. The Spanish Embassy here has been informed as to details by the Department of Agriculture. You may inform the Foreign Office of the foregoing.