1907.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. 169 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



The work against the moths has gone far enough to shoAv 

 that we have in the present law a practical means of suppress- 

 ing these dangerous insects when effective co-operation can be 

 secured. Such being the case, if the effort is to be continued, 

 the law should now be so amended as to make it general in its 

 provisions, and applying to all future operations against the 

 moths until they are brought under control. To this end, in- 

 stead of taking as a basis of assessments and liabilities under 

 the law the valuations of 1904, the superintendent recommends 

 that the valuations of the previous year be taken as such basis 

 in each succeeding year. 



The superintendent should be given authority, subject to the 

 approval of the Governor, to initiate or carry on necessary work 

 against the moths in cities or towns failing to provide sufficient 

 funds in season for such necessary work, or failing to perform 

 it in a satisfactory manner ; the work so done to be at the ex- 

 pense of the city or town, which shall be collected in the form 

 of a special State tax upon municipalities failing to comply 

 with the requirements of the law. This, of course, will necessi- 

 tate an extra amount of expert supervision on the part of the 

 central office, and a suitable charge for State management may 

 properly be made. Should this recommendation be adopted, a 

 proper allowance should be made, as under the statute, for the 

 cost of all work done directly by the city or town during the 

 year when said operations were in progress. 



In the case of local parks, cemeteries, woodlands and other 

 places of general public resort, where there is particular danger 

 of the scattering of the moths, the superintendent should be 

 given authority to take charge, at the expense of the State, of 

 the necessary field operations, or to assist cities and towns in 

 carrying on the same, subject to the approval of the Governor. 

 If this recommendation is adopted, the central office will be 

 legally in a position to give additional assistance to those mu- 

 nicipalities which might otherwise be obliged, from lack of 

 funds, to neglect the proper care of their parks and similar 

 places of public resort. 



