434 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



protect her important lumber interests and forest-clad mountains, the 

 features which make the state one of the most beautiful and attractive 

 in the union, unless Massachusetts may be aided by liberal appropria- 

 tions from the federal government, so that the further spread of the 

 pest may be checked and be increasingly controlled where it is worst. 

 To this end bills have been introduced during the present session by 

 Hon. E. W. Eoberts, of Massachusetts (H. E. 285 and 286), appropri- 

 ating $250,000 for the extermination or control of the gypsy moth and 

 $15,000 for the importation of parasites and predaceous enemies, to be 

 administered by the secretary of agriculture. This measure has the 

 support of New Hampshire and all the best interests of New England. 



But though this appropriation is necessary for immediate use, it 

 seems that the whole matter of the relation of the national government 

 to the control of insect pests is in an unsatisfactory condition. Who 

 can guarantee that this appropriation will be repeated? How can it 

 be administered under present laws, except through the officials of the 

 state of Massachusetts? In New Hampshire there is no legislation 

 upon the matter at present, and any action would have to be done 

 entirely with the permission of property owners, and by the approval 

 of the governor, as at present no damage to property would be involved. 

 If the national government has the power to make an appropriation 

 for this purpose why has it not the right and duty to provide the 

 proper machinery for its administration whenever the necessity may 

 arise from other pests in various parts of the country, without special 

 subsequent action of congress authorizing the same, and if congress 

 has such prerogatives, why should they not be exercised for the benefit 

 of the agricultural and horticultural interests, as well as those of the 

 city trees of the entire country? To show the propriety, feasibility, 

 and desirability of such legislation is the writer's purpose. 



That national control of introduced insect pests would be of the 

 greatest value can hardly be doubted after a brief glance at the history 

 of the worst introduced insects of the last twenty-five years. Had 

 there been a federal official with authority to proceed and stamp out 

 and control the San Jose scale when it first appeared in the east, could 

 not its spread have been to a very large extent prevented, if not indeed 

 entirely stopped? Or similarly, if a federal official had commenced 

 the extermination or control of the gypsy moth in the eighties before it 

 was taken up by Massachusetts, and had supervised the work of that 

 state, being ready to step in and prevent its subsequent spread sufficient 

 to endanger the neighboring states, would not the alarming conditions 

 now existing have been to a large extent prevented ? The same is true 

 of the brown-tail moth. The Gypsy Moth Committee of Massachusetts 

 fully appreciated the danger of this pest, which in many respects is 

 worse than the gypsy moth, but they had no funds with which to com- 

 bat it. Later a small appropriation was made, but it was entirely in- 



