No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 159 



By such inspection work it has been possible — up to the present- 

 to prevent the introduction into this State (tf such very objectionable 

 pests as the Gypsy moth, the Brown-tail moth, the Pine-tree blight, 

 the Potato tuber disease and numerous other insects and diseases 

 which might otherwise prove every far more serious than those which 

 we have at present. The accompying plate. Fig. 3, shows a portion of 

 an imported shipment of stock received b.y one of our large nursery- 

 men. It must be understood that each box contains sometimes thou- 

 sands of plants, and that all of these were examined with great care. 



In this inspection of importations, we have the close co-operation 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture. Dr. L. O. Howard, 

 United States Entomologist, regularly informs us immediately of 

 all nursery stock, cuttings, bulbs, seedlings, etc., coming into any 

 port of entry in the United States, and destined for Pennsylvania. 

 The Custom House officers likewise are courteous in giving us reports 

 of the same, and it is our regular method, as soon as these reports 

 arrive, and we learn that the shipments have reached their destina- 

 tion, to have an inspector present to see that they are free from 

 injurious insect pests and plant diseases. 



GYPSY MOTH (See Fig. 4) 



Growers in the foreign countries now realize that this inspection 

 work in America is not a farce, and that their infested or infested 

 trees are liable to be thrown back on their hands or destroyed at 

 their loss. Therefore, they have become much more careful than 

 formerly in regard to the shipment of stock carrying insects or 

 diseases and, in fact, they are placing their own inspectors in the 

 supervision of their exported stock to make certain for themselves 

 that such pests are not carried with the treees. The results of this 

 is shown in the fact that while a few years ago we found thousands 

 of the winter nests of the Brown-tail moth containing tens of thou- 

 sands of living larvae, and masses of eggs of the Gypsy moth and 

 other pests that might prove quite serious, we have not, during the 

 past period of inspection, found any very serious pests, although 

 hundreds of thousands of trees and bushes were imported and in- 

 spected. Without such careful work on the part of this office, we 

 are certain that the Gypsy moth and the Brown-tail moth would now 

 be devastating the vegetation in the State of Pennsylvania the same 

 as they are doing in the New England states. (See Figs. 5 and 6.) 



The importance of careful nursery inspection and the proper in- 

 spection of importations is better comprehended when we remember 

 that "a large percentage of the imported insect pests and plant 

 diseases in this country have been brought in on imported stock. 

 Among these recently so introduced are the San Jose scale and, in 

 New England, the Brown-tail moth, and in past years, more than 

 50 per cent, of the major fruit and crop pests and plant diseases which 

 now infest this country. 



The government is now appropriating ^300,000.00 annually, in an 

 effort merely to control the Brown-tail and Gypsy moth, in a small 

 section of New England, and the New England states of themselves 

 are spending upwards of $1,000,000.00 annually in the same effort. 



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