FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



quarantine law as early as 1881, but the other States did nothing, 

 and the Federal Government took no action. 



In 1895 I took as the subject of my address as retiring chair- 

 man of the Section of Zoology of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science "The Spread of Land Species by 

 the Agency of Man, with Especial Reference to Insects." I 

 brought together what seemed to me a rather impressive series 

 of facts and arguments. I had intended to go into the matter 

 more deeply than I did and to watch personally the arrival and 

 unloading of transatlantic steamers in order to investigate the 

 possibilities of the introduction of what might be termed "chance 

 passengers" in the way of insects other than those attached to, 

 or contained in, plants or plant products. I was unable to do 

 this, but I think the argument, as it stood, was almost as strong 

 as if I had done it. 



About this time other State laws began to be passed, and these 

 laws were collected and published in successive bulletins by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



In 1895, in an address entitled "Injurious Insects and Com- 

 merce," delivered before the Peninsular Horticultural Society 

 at Dover, Delaware, I made a strong plea for the extension 

 of such legislation, calling it "the crying need of the present 

 time." And the following year I delivered a similar address 

 before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Boston. 



In the meantime, I had begun a study of those pests to agri- 

 culture in various foreign countries, especially those that had 

 not yet made their appearance in the United States, but that 

 were likely to be introduced in the course of commerce and 

 were potentially extremely dangerous. In 1897, ^ used much of 

 the information thus gained in an article entitled "The Danger 

 of Importing Insect Pests," published in the Yearbook of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



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