WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD I4I 



importer, and blister rust has been found in this country on pines shipped from 

 a healthy region in France, and later I was told by the exporter himself that 

 he had purchased this stock near the infested district in Germany. A quarantine 

 against all European pines is needed. 



At present those scourges of the forests and orchards, the gipsy moth and 

 the brown-tail moth, are confined to New England, but every year nursery stock 

 containing the winter nests of the brown-tail moth and the egg-masses of the 

 gipsy moth enters the port of New York from Europe and is scattered over the 

 country. There is no law which can bring about the inspection of this stock ; 

 but by the cooperation of many people an inspection is generally secured even 

 in the absence of the law ; it is the best we can do. The Bureau of Entomology 

 at Washington is notified by the Collector of the Port of New York and of 

 other ports upon the arrival of plants from abroad, and is furnished with the 

 name and address of the consignee. Several of the large importing agents in 

 New York send the addresses of the ultimate consignees to the Bureau; several 

 of the railroads also send word of the carriage of foreign plants. In this way, 

 in the great majority of cases, perhaps nearly in all, the Bureau learns the 

 addresses of the persons receiving the plants, and is enabled, either through 

 inspectors of the different states or through its own inspectors, to inspect the 

 plants before they are put in the ground and to advise concerning the destruction 

 of those found to be infested with new pests. It may happen, however, at any 

 time that the gipsy moth and the brown-tail moth and other forest and orchard 

 pests of Europe may escape this kind of inspection, through faulty notification, 

 and may establish themselves here, there, or anywhere in the United States ; 

 and when we think of the havoc that these two insects have made in New 

 England and of the enormous sums of money which have been spent to hold 

 them in check, the prospect that other States will have similar fights on their 

 hands is appalling. 



It is safe to say that of insects alone, and not considering diseases of plants, 

 the species accidentally imported into this country are costing us some hundreds 

 of millions of dollars annually. It is also safe to say that if the nation does not 

 secure a quarantine and inspection law this amount will be doubled by the 

 losses caused by new introductions. 



That this estimate is moderate is shown when we consider only the pests 

 recently introduced and established, that is within the past year or so. Possibly 

 the most destructive of these is the alfalfa leaf weevil, which has already caused 

 enormous damage in Utah and which has spread over into the Wyoming fields 

 and threatens to spread throughout the great alfalfa-growing region of the 

 middle west. The introduction and spread of this insect is a veritable calamity, 

 so much depends upon the alfalfa crops in those regions. 



Dr. John B. Smith, of New Jersey, has recently called attention to the 

 discovery of the European red-tail moth in New Jersey. This is capable of 

 being a very troublesome pest, and is a general feeder in Europe, sometimes 

 entirely defoliating forest areas. 



In Cambridge, Massachusetts, it has recently been found that the smaller 

 European elm bark beetle has become established, and, working with the 

 leopard moth — also a European importation — ^has nearly destroyed the mag- 

 nificent elms in and around the campus of Harvard University. These old trees 

 are being uprooted, and the cost of their removal alone amounts to $30 per tree. 



What bids fair to be a very important apple pest is the apple seed chalcis 

 which has been found in New York State. It is a well-known European pest, 



