272 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 3 



were suffered from the destruction of sugar cane and cocoanut by 

 locusts. Last year work was begun in that area which resulted in the 

 saving of about £250,000 worth of crops and as a further result this 

 year locusts have invaded only a very small portion of the area. 



Taking the locust problem as a whole there is, therefore, only one 

 territory remaining over which there is not absolute control, i. e. ; 

 Parts of German South West Africa. The German Government is 

 doing its utmost to control the pest within its boundaries but when we 

 remember the character of the country, with its vast extent of almost 

 desert land, with no white population and no water, we can under- 

 stand the impossibility of the task. We will probably have swarms 

 of brown locusts invading the other parts of South Africa from that 

 region from time to time. Beyond this, however, there is no reason 

 why South Africa should have a recurrence of such a scourge as in 

 the past, provided she is watchful and meets each small invasion with 

 prompt action. Now that there is to be one government over all of 

 British South Africa, the administration of such matters as locust 

 destruction can be from a central office where the work can be more 

 successfully directed than heretofore. 



The locust work in South Africa has had a more far reaching effect, 

 in the Transvaal at least, than the mere saving of the crops in immi- 

 nent danger. It has succeeded more thoroughly and more quickly 

 than years of teaching and publishing of reports could have done, 

 in converting a conservative backward people to the value of new 

 scientific methods in combating pests of all sorts. The farmer who 

 was formerly inclined to laugh at the Entomologist as a " bug catcher ' ' 

 now listens to him and accepts his advice. 



NURSERY INSPECTION IN MASSACHUSETTS 



By H. T. Febnald, Amherst, Mass. 



In some respects the work of the nursery inspector in Massachu- 

 setts would seem to differ from that in most states. Of the one 

 hundred and thirty odd nurseries requiring inspection, only two are 

 at present growing any fruit stock, nearly all devoting themselves 

 entirely to ornamentals. Large sales of fruit trees are made, of 

 course, but the only evidence of this which the inspectors find during 

 their fall inspections are small blocks of "left overs" from the spring 

 purchases. Here, however, the San Jose Scale is frequently very 

 abundant, sustaining the now well recognized fact that the inspectors 

 in other states as well as in Massachusetts are not alwaj^s infallible. 



Most of the nurseries in the state are small, the average size perhaps 



