262 EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULrURE. 



In July, 1884, 86 cases of calf boots were shipped by the Common- 

 wealth Boot and Shoe Comjjauy, of Boston, by one of the steamers of 

 the Boston and Savannah Steamship Company, to A. Einstein's Sous, 

 of Savannah. They were held at the Einstein's establishment, which is 

 exclusively a. boot and shoe store, for four weeks, and were returned to 

 Boston in August, as it v»'as decided that they did not come up to sample. 

 The boots were examined several times while in Savannah, and the last 

 time on the day before shipment, but no insects were noticed and no 

 evidence of their work ; nor had the beetle been seen or heard of by auy 

 one in the Einstein's establishment. On their arrival in Boston, after 

 a journey of five days (and they may have remained upon the wharves 

 of the company at Savannah a day or more before shipment), the boots 

 were examiued by the i)resident and treasurer of the Commonwealth 

 Comi)auy, and were then for the first time noticed to be slightly dam- 

 aged by insects, of which no one knew tlio nature. On arbitration it 

 was decided that they did come up to sample and they were reshii)ped 

 to the Einstoins, tlic steamship company giving a clean bill of lading, 

 notwithstanding the fact that the invoice stated " damaged by bugs." 



The goods arrived in Savannah the second time during the first week 

 in September, and remained on the wharf four days. Before being re- 

 moved they were examined by Mr. P. Einstein and his stockmen and 

 the wharf clerk, and were found to be swarming with adult beetles and 

 full-grown larva\ In burrows in the leather were cast-off larval skins 

 of large size, and in burrows in the pine wood of the boxes were pupre. 

 They were then removed to the store, and the adult beetles come out 

 through the wood of the boxes by the hundreds. They were shown to 

 n. Meyer Bros., hide dealers, who ]:)ronounced them to be genuine 

 " Hide Bugs." A paste, known as '' Peruvian Bug Paste," was applied 

 to the boxes, which were then removed to a warehouse. They were 

 examined again two flays later and were still found lobe "full of bugs." 

 They were then thoroughly treated -ssith 20 pounds of pyrethrum 

 bought at a drug store, but the effect of the application was not no- 

 ticed, as, acting on legal ad\ace,the Einsteins immediately shipped the 

 boots to a firm of correspondents in Boston, instructing them to have 

 them overhauled, repacked, and reboxed and sold at auction as dam- 

 aged goods, making the best disposition of them possible. This was 

 done (the steamship company on this shipping rei'using to give a clean 

 bill of lading, but entering the goods as " damaged by liido bugs "), and 

 by the sale the Einsteins sustained a loss of $950, including all expenses 

 excepting freight. They then brought suit against the steamship com- 

 pany for dam^iges to this amount, claiming that the goods became 

 originally infested by the bugs while in the company's charge. They 

 claim that the company carries on almost every trip large quantities of 

 hides to the North ; that many of these hides are insufficiently poisoned 

 and must be infested by "hide bugs " ; that in midsummer, with a carry- 

 ing trade of this nature, it would be almost impossible to keep the wha rves 

 and vessels free from these insects on account of their tenacity of life 

 and tendency to work into cracks and crannies and keep themselves 

 hidden; that their own store is and always has been uninfested; that 

 the insect is not a leather pest in Boston, and that, therefore, the bee- 

 tles must have made their way into the boxes of boots either while they 

 were upon the company's wharves in Savannah, or while they were upon 

 the steamer upon their first return to Boston. 



At the time of the present writing the case has not been decided. 

 From our knowledge of the insect and from what facts in the case we 



