1906.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. 157 



NATIONAL AID. 



The problem of moth control is no longer confined to a 

 single State ; three States are infested by the gypsy moth and 

 four by the brown-tail moth. If any permanent headway is 

 to be made against these insects, co-operation between the 

 States is a prerequisite condition ; and this, it would appear, 

 can be best obtained through the assistance of the national 

 government. 



In the case of the brown-tail moth there is no hope of 

 exterminating it, and even its control in woodlands is out 

 of the question, because of the expense involved. As pre- 

 viously pointed out, this insect can be easily destroyed, even 

 by unskilled persons, and there is no good reason why 

 property owners should not be able to protect their shade 

 and fruit trees from it. Further than this they cannot go 

 without incurring, in the majority of cases, unwarranted 

 expense. 



With the gypsy moth the case is different. Here we have 

 a slowly spreading insect, as yet confined to a limited section 

 of New England. With sufficient funds it can be held in 

 check. Without means for a thorough campaign of sup- 

 pression, a further spreading is bound to take place. This 

 insect attacks not a single crop, as does the cotton boll 

 weevil, already the cause of large expenditures of national 

 funds, but all fruit, shade and forest trees ; it threatens our 

 orchards, street trees and parks ; in woodlands it leaves behind 

 dead pines, spruces and other conifers while many of the 

 deciduous trees eventually succumb. 



Massachusetts has proven beyond any question or doubt 

 that this pest can be controlled. At one time she gave to 

 the nation an example of the successful solution of the 

 greatest problem in applied entomology ever known, 

 although ceasing too soon her efforts. She has shown the 

 faith that is within her by an unprecedented expenditure of 

 funds to preserve her trees. In protecting herself she has 

 protected at least the rest of New England. If ever a State 

 was entitled to national aid in a worthy cause, that State is 

 Massachusetts. 



