JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 



JUNE, 1909 



The editors will thankfully receive news items and other matter likely to be of in- 

 terest to subscribers. Papers will be published, so far as possible, in the order of re- 

 ception. All extended contributions, at least, should be in the hands of the editor the 

 first of the month preceding publication. Reprints of contributions may be obtained 

 at cost. Minor line figures will be reproduced without charge, but the engraving of larger 

 Illustrations must be borne by contributors or the electrotypes supplied. The receipt 

 of all papers will be acknowledged.— Eds. 



It is a pleasure to include in this number two articles on methods of 

 nursery inspection. We trust that they will provoke discussion and 

 lead to a fiill and frank consideration of the more important prob- 

 lems arising in this branch of applied entomology. The importation 

 last winter of many shipments of nursers" stock bearing winter nests 

 of the brown-tail moth aroused the country to the importance of nurs- 

 ery inspection. Unfortunately the inspection officials of various states 

 were limited by political boundaries and could go no farther than is 

 possible through mutual cooperation. We believe everything was 

 done that was feasable to locate shipments of infested stock and to 

 destroy the pests. Nevertheless, the necessity of national inspection 

 or ciuarantine regulations made itself apparent to everyone convers- 

 ant with the situation. Exclusion is immensely cheaper and much 

 more satisfactory than suppression after a pest has become well estab- 

 lished. The annual cost of fighting the gipsy moth in the restricted 

 New England areas infested by this pest now amounts to much more 

 than would suffice to maintain a thoroughly adequate national quar- 

 antine. The gipsy moth is only one among many imported insects, 

 some of which have become widely established throughout the country 

 and annually cause enormous losses. Furthermore, no one can foresee 

 the time when some other very destructive pest will become estab- 

 lished in this country. Nursery inspection, if it is to survive, must 

 justify itself by excluding injurious species, or at least by preventing 

 their unrestricted dis.semination throughout the country. We all 

 admit the desirability of national quarantine. A bill providing for 

 this was before Congress last winter and was defeated because cer- 

 tain features were objectionable to nurserymen. The entire proposi- 

 tion should be thoroughly canvassed and an effort made to work out 

 a harmonious solution which will afford maximum protection with 

 minimum annovance and loss. 



