Editorial N'otes. 147 



Dining the course of the meeting j\[r. Andrew JMurray read a 

 valuable paper prepared by him upon the subject, in which he advo- 

 cated direct State interference to suppress the ravages of noxious 

 insects, which he supported by convincing evidence of the necessity 

 of some steps being taken to meet the evils of the case ; but 

 direct interference by the Government was evidently not in favour 

 with the majority at the meeting, and Mr. Clare Sewell Eead went 

 so far as to emphatically declare that in such a matter the Govern- 

 ment would be certain to make a muddle, and finished his speech by 

 recommending that the Government be asked not to do anything in. 

 the matter ! 



For our own part we do not see any good reason given against the 

 employment of proper State aid in the suppression of noxious and 

 injurious insects, when we know it is already so extensively applied, 

 and with the very best results, in the suppression of noxious diseases 

 amongst men by the Sanitary Acts, and amongst animals by the 

 Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act ; and also what comes extremely 

 close upon the subject in dispute, the laws for the suppression of 

 unwholesome smells or gases injurious to the well-being of the sam& 

 crops which it is desired to protect from the ravages of noxious in- 

 sects. Already do the farmers submit with grace to the strict enforce- 

 ment of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, because they are fully 

 aware, from recent and dearly-bought experience, of the great benefit 

 derived from it in the suppression of rinderpest and less fatal diseases 

 amongst their stock; and the dwellers in our cities, towns, and 

 villages do not feel our wholesome sanitary laws to be unbearable to 

 free-born Britons when cholera, small-pox, or fever is raging in their 

 midst ; therefore we may safely predict a cheerful acquiescence with 

 any restrictions which the Government may deem necessary for the 

 extirpation of insects injurious to our plants or crops. 



There is no insect from which our crops, plants, and trees suffer so 

 detrimentally but that against its attacks science can discover a 

 remedy, and practical men can apply it ; but without the aid of proper 

 laws, or State aid to enforce the due application of the remedy on 

 every man's property, it is in vain to think we can extirpate the in- 

 sects which infest the crops of our ignorant or careless neighbour. 

 Clean our own crops as we may, we can never be safe from the ravages 

 of insects so long as our neighbour is allowed, at his own free will 

 and pleasure, to harbour them in myriads, ready at any moment to 

 make a raid upon the crops which we have been at such great trouble 

 and expense to cultivate in a clean and healthy state for our pleasure 

 or profit. 



The same sufficient reason for State interference applies to all 

 branches of cultivation, agriculture^ arboriculture, and horticulture ; 



