April,'22] fracker: legal pest control 167 



webs, five francs per thousand was the amount first allowed, but this was 

 later reduced by one half. Owners are required to remove the nests from 

 their property and many prosecutions followed cases of neglect. The 

 outbreak was first noted in the environs of Paris, stripping of oaks, 

 hawthorns, and elms were plainly visible from the train and even the 

 hedges along the railroad were defoliated. 



Chairman Ruggles: The next paper is by S. B. Fracker. 

 THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF PEST CONTROL 



By S. B. Fracker, Madison, Wisconsin 



Up to within the last few years the only pests receiving legal attention 

 were those we did not have and did not want. Little or no consideration 

 was given to established insects altho they are causing 99% of the total 

 losses. Research and education require no enactments by legislative 

 authority, and extension activities constituted the only means of making 

 entomology really "economic." For until the facts discovered by 

 research are used in actual practice, science cannot be called "applied." 



The great weakness of pest control so far is in connection with those 

 species which should receive simultaneous attention over large areas. 

 The Pacific Coast states have progressed much farther along these lines 

 than other sections and have definitely recognized that pest control 

 is a proper function of government. The ever-increasing losses from 

 insects and plant diseases have now reached a point where they are of 

 great public concern, and leaving the whole matter to the individual 

 owner is no longer sufficient. 



Kansas has recognized this in the case of grasshopper outbreaks 

 and has passed a special statute providing for county and township 

 grasshopper campaigns. In considering the organization of similar 

 control work against the same insects in Wisconsin two years ago, the 

 writer investigated the whole question of the legal status of pest control 

 in the various states, and was surprised to discover that in most cases 

 it had not gone beyond the stage of nursery inspection. 



The statutes required in the case of firmly established insects are of 

 a different type from the mandatory regulations governing nursery 

 inspection, and quarantine orders. The need is for political machinery 

 to handle funds, buy material, and supervise the mixing of sprays and 

 poison baits. In the case of grasshoppers, for example, town or county 

 board members are the logical local officials to buy poisons and attractive 

 baits for distribution. This is much more satisfactory than to leave 



