12 DANGER OF SPREAD OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS, 
This insect is, therefore, a most undesirable neighbor, even if it were 
not responsible for great injury to orchards and ornamental trees. 
CHARACTER AND VALUE OF IMPORTED NURSERY STOCK. 
The actual value of the importations of nursery stock which is 
thus jeopardizing the entire fruit and forest interests of this country, 
as declared at customs during the years 1907 and 1908, of which we 
have tabulated records, is about $350,000 annually, but little more 
than the sum which the United States Government is spending every 
year in an endeavor to eliminate the spread of the gipsy moth and the 
brown-tail moth, and one-third the sum which the New England 
States are spending annually in an attempt to control these pests. 
The major part of the imported stock consists of seedling apple, 
pear, plum, and cherry from north France. There is also consid- 
erable importation of ornamental and flowering plants, shrubs, and’ 
trees. The latter is purely commercial, and comes in very largely 
for the reason that it can be produced more cheaply abroad than in 
this country. Of the seedling stock, it is claimed by nurserymen 
that the imported plum, cherry, and quince stock particularly is 
much better material for grafting purposes than home-grown seed- 
lings. In the case of the apple seedlings, however, the great mass 
of such stock is still produced in this country and can undoubtedly 
be just as well produced here, if not better, than in France or else- 
where in Europe. 
The stock of the last two years which has been most infested has 
come from northern France, accumulated from various smaller or 
larger nurseries, including a French seedling agency, managed by 
an American corporation composed largely of New York nurserymen. 
If, as is claimed, some of this seedling stock is better than any that 
can be produced in this country, it becomes all the more imperative 
that such stock, or all imported stock, should be subject to rigid 
inspection, and that every possible means should be taken to safe- 
guard this country from the further establishment of these two very 
dangerous insect pests. 
EUROPEAN NURSERY CONDITIONS. 
During the summer of 1909, and also again in 1910, Dr. Howard, 
who was in Europe principally to supervise the introduction of 
parasites for the gipsy and -brown-tail moths into Massachusetts, 
made a careful inspection of the nursery regions of Holland, Bel- 
gium, and northern France, and also England. 
The writer was in Europe, on a personal trip, in the summer of 
1909, and made an examination of similar conditions in Holland, 
Belgium, and parts of Germany. 
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