CHAPTER 527

AN ACT to create a State Seed Potato Committee and to pre-
scribe its powers and duties; to authorize the adoption of
certain rules and regulations; to provide for the inspection
of certain potatoes and the certification thereof; to
ampose certain fees; to prohibit certain acts and provide
penalties for violations; and to repeal certain acts.

[ H 612 J
Approved April 7, 1950

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. This act shall be known as the Virginia Seed Potato
Inspection Law.

§ 2. This act and regulations adopted hereunder are de-
clared to be necessary in order to improve agricultural produc-
tion in Virginia, to enable potato growers to secure higher qual-
ity Irish potatoes and parts thereof for the purpose of propa-
gation, to prevent the spread of diseases affecting agriculture
and to promote the general welfare of the public.
§ 3. As used in this act “Approved Seed” Irish potatoes and
parts thereof for propagation purposes shall mean disease free
Irish potatoes and parts thereof which conform to the standards
hereinafter provided for.

§ 4. After the effective date of this act, it shall be unlaw-
ful for any person, firm, association or corporation to offer or
expose for sale, or ship into the early commercial potato section
of this State, any Irish potatoes or parts thereof intended for
propagation purposes, which do not conform to the standards
of ‘‘Approved Seed” potatoes as herein used.

§ 5. In order to provide disease free stock for propagation
purposes The State Seed Potato Committee is hereby authorized
to make such reasonable rules and regulations to provide for
disease free stock as may be needed.

§ 6. There is hereby created a State Seed Potato Commit-
tee, consisting of nine members, namely, the State Entomologist,
the Director of the Division of Markets of the Department of
Agriculture and Immigration, the Director of the Virginia Truck
Experiment Station, the Chairman of State Certified Seed Com-
mission, the Head of the Department of Horticulture, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, and four selected from the principal potato
growing areas who shall be growers and dealers in potatoes. The
last four members of the Committee shall be elected each year
at the annual meeting of the Association of Virginia Potato and
Vegetable Growers. All members shall serve for a term of one
year each and until their successors are elected and take office.
All members of this Committee may designate official repre-
sentatives to attend meetings in their place who shall have full
voting power. Five members of the Committee or their five
officially designated representatives shall constitute a quorum.
The Committee shall elect its own chairman and meet at least
once each year, prior to beginning of the seed potato buying
season, and at such other times during the year as it may deem
necessary. At such meetings it shall be the duty of the Com-
mittee to make such amendments as are necessary in the seed
potato standards adopted by the Committee pursuant to this
act, and to the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant
hereto for enforcing such standards. The members of the Com-
mittee shall not be paid by the State in any way.

§ 7. It shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agricul-
ture and Immigration to employ qualified inspectors to assist
in the enforcement of this law and regulations adopted here-
under affecting the distribution and sale of Irish potatoes and
parts thereof intended for propagation purposes. The Commis-
sioner of Agriculture and Immigration is hereby authorized to
require of personnel in his department the performance of duties
which involve technical and scientific questions in connection
with the enforcement of this act.

§ 8. To effectively enforce the provisions of this act, the
Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration shall require
employees of his department to inspect Irish potatoes and parts
thereof shipped into, possessed, sold or offered for sale within
this State for the purpose of propagation, and the Commissioner
and such employees may enter any place of business, warehouse,
common carrier or other place where such potatoes are stored
or being held, for the purpose of making such inspection. It
shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation having
custody of such potatoes or of the place in which the same are
held to interfere with such inspections. The fee for such inspec-
tion shall not exceed the current rate for Federal-State inspec-
tion of table stock potatoes or the reasonable cost of inspection
whichever is less. When the Commissioner or his employees
find potatoes or parts thereof held, offered or exposed for sale
in violation of any of the provisions of this act or any rule or
regulation adopted pursuant thereto, he may issue a written or
printed “stop sale” order to the owner or custodian of any such
potatoes and it shall be unlawful for anyone, after receipt of
such “stop sale” order, to sell for propagation purposes within
this State, any potatoes with respect to which such order has
been issued. Such “stop sale” order shall not prevent the sale
of such potatoes for other than propagation purposes or for
propagation purposes outside of this State.

§ 9. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this act, the
Commissioner is authorized and directed when disease free
stock is not available to permit for such periods of time as, in
his discretion, he may deem necessary, the sale for propagation
purposes of potatoes which do not meet the standards estab-
lished under this act, as such standards may from time to time
be amended but which do meet such lesser standards as the
Committee may prescribe.

§10. Nothing in this act shall prohibit the sale, for propa-
gation purposes of Irish potatoes or parts thereof grown within
or without this State when sold by the grower thereof to a plan-
ter having personal knowledge of the conditions under which
such potatoes were grown.

§ 11. Any person, firm or corporation violating any of
the provisions of this act or any rule or regulation promulgated
pursuant hereto shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon con-
viction thereof shall be punished by a fine of ten dollars the
first offense, fifty dollars for the second offense, three hun-
dred dollars for the third offense, and one thousand dollars for
each additional offense. Whenever the Commissioner has rea-
son to believe there has been any violation of the provisions
of this act or of any rule or regulation promulgated pursuant
hereto he shall immediately notify in writing tne person, firm
or corporation if same be known. Any party so notified shall
be given an opportunity to be heard under such rules and regu-
lations as may be promulgated as herein provided. If it ap-
pears after proper hearing, that any of the provisions of this
act have been violated, the Commissioner of Agriculture and
Immigration shall certify the facts to the Attorney for the
Commonwealth in the county or city in which the violation oc-
curred, and furnish him with a copy of the results of the in-
spection of such Irish potatoes, or parts thereof duly authenti-
cated by the inspector making such inspection, under the oath
of such inspector. It shall be the duty of such attorney of
such county or city to prosecute any case involving the viola-
tion of any provisions of this act or of any rule or regulation
when promulgated as herein provided when requested to do so
by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration.

__ 2, Nothing in this act shall be construed as repealing Ar-
ticle 2 of Chapter 13 of Title 3 of the Code of Virginia of 1950,
but all other laws or parts of laws in conflict with the pro-
visions of this act are repealed to the extent of such conflict.