44 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [February, 



DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



Edited by Prof. JOHN B. SMITH, Sc. D., New Brunswick, N. J. 



Legislation Against Insects. This subject is not a new one by any man- 

 ner of means, and has attracted attention in several States of the Union, 

 notably California and Massachusetts. In the latter State legislation 

 extends only in the direction of an attempt to exterminate the Gypsy moth. 

 In California the interest of the growers of the Citrus fruits have been the 

 prime consideration. I am not aware that in any State there exist laws 

 which can be made applicable to compel the destruction of insects of all 

 kinds, and certainly nowhere is there any legislation that has proved abso- 

 lutely successful. I have already touched upon this subject in this depart- 

 ment, and have indicated that there has been a growing demand among 

 the more intelligent farmers and especially fruit-growers, for some method 

 of compelling a general attention to insect injury and the adoption of 

 measures for the destruction of injurious species. It happens altogether 

 too often that the careful farmer who does all that it is possible for him to 

 do to prevent injury upon his own domain, finds that his efforts are to a 

 large extent made useless by the fact that some of his neighbors do not 

 adopt similar measures and annually raise on their land a sufficient num- 

 ber of insects to supply the entire vicinity. Therefore, instead of finding 

 his task lightened year by year, through a gradual reduction of the injuri- 

 ous species, he finds that the supply is fairly well kept up through no fault 

 of his own. A man finding himself in that position, naturally seeks for 

 some method of compelling his neighbor so to use his property as not to 

 damage him, and the question has been brought up in the agricultural 

 societies in New Jersey for some time past, resulting finally in the appoint- 

 ment of a committee by the State Horticultural Society to inquire into 

 the possibility of preparing a law which was enforcable, and which enforced 

 would accomplish the result aimed at. Of this committee the writer was 

 a member, and the investigations made resulted in the conviction that it 

 would be an extremely difficult matter to procure the enforcement of any 

 law on the subject ; but as laws were demanded an act was drafted which 

 it was believed would avoid some of the objection made to other similar 

 legislation, and which would not be a dead-letter where there was suffi- 

 cient public sentiment to secure its enforcement. 



In the first place, it was believed that the sentiment against informers 

 on the part of juries, and indeed justices as well, was so strong, as a char- 

 acter who sought to derive a profit from even the illegal acts of his neigh- 

 bors, that it would be difficult to secure a conviction on any testimony 

 given or secured by him. 



In the second place, it was decided that the act should be called into 

 effect only through the action first of the County Boards of Agriculture, 

 and afterward through the action of the State Board of Agriculture, or its 



