610 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



would seem fully justified in maintaining for the present the quaran- 

 tine and other control of this pest which is now in operation. 



THE GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



The quarantine control of the gipsy and brown-tail moths is in 

 cooperation with the Bureau of Entomology. The quarantine on 

 account of these two pests has been twice slightly modified during the 

 year. The quarantined area has been extended with respect to the 

 gipsy moth, but wath respect to the brown-tail moth it has been 

 possible to reduce very materially the area quarantined on account 

 of this insect. 



The new areas determined as infested in New Jersey, New York, 

 and Pennsylvania in 1920-21 remain as formerly under the control 

 of State quarantines, no Federal action having been taken, inasmuch 

 as these State quarantines are being administered in active coopera- 

 tion with the officers of the Bureau of Entomology of this department. 

 The scattered points of invasion in Pennsylvania, New^ York, and New 

 Jersey, which resulted from the big central colony at Somerville, 

 N. J., have been apparently eradicated. The Somerville colony has 

 been subjected to thorough clean-up and control work now for two 

 seasons, and the outlook is good for the eradication of this pest in 

 New Jersey. 



Two new points of infestation were determined during the year on 

 Long Island, and the clean-up of these areas is actively under way in 

 cooperation with the State officials. 



Inspection of products likely to disseminate the gipsy moth has 

 been continued in New^ England and in New Jersey in cooperation 

 with the State authorities, and shipments have been safeguarded by 

 careful examination. 



DATE SCALE ERADICATION. 



There are approximately 20,000 imported dale palms now planted 

 in orchards in California, Arizona, and Texas. These special date 

 districts include Coachella and Imperial Valleys in California, Yuma 

 and Salt River Valleys in Arizona, and a small garden at Laredo, Tex. 

 In addition to these planted orchards there are some 12,000 offshoots, 

 recently imported from Algeria and Egypt, now being grown in 

 4 quarantine nurseries — 2 in Indio, Calif., 1 in Yuma, Ariz., and 1 

 in Phoenix, Ariz. Altogether there are approximately 200 date 

 plantations in the United States, of which 14 are still infested with 

 the Parlatoria date scale. Several of these infested orchards have 

 been almost completely cleaned up during the year, but others are 

 still seriously infested, and among them are half a dozen orchards 

 which contain large-sized palms which require repeated treatments 

 over a considerable period to thoroughly eradicate the scale. 



The 12,000 recently imported offshoots are all under close observa- 

 tion, and many of them are likely to develop scale infestation later 

 on, even if they are now apparently clean, and these plantings must 

 therefore be kept under observation for a considerable period of years 

 before the plants can be taken out of quarantine and distributed. 



More than 100 of the date plantations in the United States have 

 been completely cleaned up within the past eight years by the 

 methods now being followed, and it is believed that the remaining 

 infested groves can be similarly cleaned up within the next few 

 fears. 



