February, '10] atwood : brown-tail moth 73 



In the mass of reported shipments that came to our office while we 

 were receiving daily reports of the discovery of a large number of 

 insects by our inspectors, we at the same time had knowledge of large 

 shipments of imported stock to nearly every state in the Union and to 

 the Dominion of Canada. 



Certainly we could not permit the establishment of brown-tail to 

 the southwest and north of us. Therefore, in accordance with the 

 usual custom of the members of this Association — the American Asso- 

 ciation of Official Horticultural Inspectors — we sent a statement of 

 our findings to each inspector in the States and the Dominion, and 

 also called attention to the apparent inefficiency of fumigation to 

 destroy the tiny broAvn-tails. 



This statement of information was followed by a prompt report to 

 each state inspector on this continent of all shipments that our system 

 gave us knowledge of. We have received from our correspondents 

 candid acknowledgments and rejoice in the generous statements made 

 by some that but for such reports as we were pleased to make them 

 and the further caution relative to ineffective fumigation, we had 

 undoubtedly been the cause of a successful control of the pest and 

 possibly prevented the foothold it might have secured in a vast area 

 of territory not yet infested. 



The unprecedented import of brown-tails in the spring shipments 

 of 1909 gave a fine opportunity to at the same time discover, if 

 present, other pests, but there was little of importance found — I 

 believe only a cluster or two of the eggs of the gypsy moth in a ship- 

 ment to a sister state. 



All plantings of foreign stocks or seedlings made in New York State 

 have been carefully inspected for nests of brown-tail motLs, and 

 nowhere have we found that a single one has escaped our inspectors' 

 diligence. 



The finding of brown-tails in importations of nursery stock to New 

 York in the spring of 1909 seems without precedent. One would think 

 that having such a conspicuous nest that if seedlings bearing them 

 had been brought here within the past forty years that some of the 

 nurserymen or some of their many men who trim the seedlings leis- 

 urely in a warm, light shop one by one, in winter would have recol- 

 lection of having seen such nests as cover this pest, but only one such 

 ease has come to light as a result of much inquiry, and in that case the 

 identification is not conclusive. 



Parenthetically I wish to digress from a strict adherence to my 

 subject and speak of the only case of a brown-tail infestation that we 

 had during the year. To a large private estate in Westchester County 



