NATIONAL CONTROL OF INSECT PESTS 435 



adequate and too late to control the pest. Had the money been avail- 

 able when the brown-tail moth was first discovered, and had it been 

 efficiently administered, we have no doubt that it might have been 

 effectively controlled. How much loss it will now cause in years to 

 come is entirely problematical, unless the European parasites become of 

 immediate value, for there is nothing to prevent its spread over the 

 entire east within a few years. Last year it spread over one hundred 

 miles in New Hampshire. Again, when the boll weevil was discovered 

 in south Texas, a representative of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture appeared before the legislature of Texas and advised legis- 

 lation which would prevent the growing of cotton in the infested coun- 

 ties, which grew but a small amount, for a few years, so that the pest 

 might be exterminated, but he was literally laughed down. Had the 

 federal government been able to step in at that time and enforce what- 

 ever measures seemed best to prevent the subsequent spread of this 

 insect throughout the cotton belt, the subsequent loss of at least $22,- 

 000,000 to Texas alone in 1904 and the present certainly unpropitious 

 outlook for the cotton interests of Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley 

 might have been averted. Might not the introduction or subsequent 

 spread of the miserable little New Orleans ant (Iridomyrmex humidis 

 Mayr.), which is now becoming such a nuisance in New Orleans and in 

 southern Louisiana, and whose spread through the south it seems im- 

 possible now to prevent or restrict, have been prevented and controlled, 

 had we had such national legislation and organization? 



Other instances might be cited, but these are well known to all. 

 Who can tell what pest may not invade some one of our boundary 

 states at any time and increase to such numbers that it will be im- 

 possible to prevent its spread before state legislation copes with it? 

 It is to be regretted, but we may as well frankly admit that the 

 present tendency toward federal control of all of these police duties is 

 almost entirely due to the inefficiency of most of our state legislatures 

 in dealing with such matters. Until very recently the states have been 

 very reluctant to delegate any power to make and enforce regulations 

 to any board or official. In doing this the Gulf states in general have 

 the most desirable type of entomological legislation, permitting effectual 

 work against any insect pests which may arise. In most of the states 

 which have legislation upon insect pests, the official administering it is 

 hampered by petty restrictions, and has no funds at his disposal for 

 coping with any new pest which may require immediate action. The 

 average state legislature is very wary of entrusting such powers to any 

 scientist, assuming in many cases that it knows much more about the 

 subject. The debates of the Texas legislature upon the boll weevil and 

 the information given the writer by some of its members would prove 

 amusing reading to the entomological fraternity. Congress, on the 

 other hand, has consistently recognized that it must depend upon ex- 



