136 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



Spraying. The caterpillars are readily killed by arsenical 

 sprays. The remedy is most effective when applied as soon as 

 the leaves develop in the spring. Of course where the winter 

 nests have been destroyed there will be no need of this remedy 

 and it is much easier to kill about 200 caterpillars enclosed in 

 a nest than to wait until they are scattered over the tree. 



Legislation Against the Browx-tail and Gypsy Moths 



Legislation in Maine. In Maine the alarming invasion of the 

 brown-tail moth during 1903 and 1904 emphasized the need of 

 legislation against the ravages of dangerous insects and diseases, 

 and in February, 1905, an act was passed to provide for the 

 inspection of nurseries and incoming nursery stock, and placed 

 with the Commissioner of Agriculture the duty of investigating 

 any locality where the presence of dangerous insects or plant 

 diseases may be suspected. 



National Legislation. Appreciating the necessity of combat- 

 ing the brown-tail and gypsy moths which threaten not alone 

 the New England States, but the vegetation of the whole coun- 

 try, the last United States Congress passed an emergency appro- 

 priation of $82,500 to be used in preventing the further spread 

 of these insects as far as possible. 



Aroostook Potato Insects. 



Wherever native vegetation is destroyed over a large area and 

 a cultivated crop substituted, the equilibrium of insect condi- 

 tions is upset, and a readjustment ensues. If the plant- feeding 

 insects of the locality are able to adapt themselves to a diet of the 

 cultivated crop, the readjustment is of economic interest. 



The potato fields of Northern Maine present an opportunity 

 for observation along this line. Approximately 6,000 acres have 

 been opened to the potato crop in Aroostook County during the 

 past 16 years. What has become of the insects originally feed- 

 ing upon other vegetation over these 6,000 acres is chiefly a 

 matter of fruitless speculation. In general they have died, 

 changed their location, or accepted the potato as an article of 

 diet. 



The inevitable Colorado potato beetle is taken philosoph- 

 ically here as elsewhere as a part of potato culture, and certain 



