329 
mittee of the State Horticultural Society to prevent depredations by 
insects injurious to the agricultural and horticultural interests of the 
State, which is to be submitted to the legislature of the State at the 
present session by the legislative committee of the State Board of 
Agriculture. The act provides that whenever requested by a resolution 
of any county Board of Agriculture the Executive Committee of the: 
State Board of Agriculture shall appoint three persons to act as com- 
missioners for the purposes of the act, such commissioners to be paid 
a reasonable allowance out of the fines and costs collected under the 
further provisions of the act. When complaint is made to such com- 
missioners that any agriculturist has neglected or refused to employ 
the methods prescribed by the State Agricultural Experiment Station 
for the destruction of injurious insects notice shall be served in writ- 
ing upon such person, specifying the insect or insects complained of, 
and said notice shall be accompanied by a reference to the reports of 
the Experiment Station where the proper remedy is prescribed, or a 
printed copy of the proper bulletin or report may be served with the 
notice. It shall be the duty of the person so notified, within twenty. 
four hours, to proceed to destroy the insects complained of on his lands 
in the manner prescribed; and failure to do so within six days after 
receipt of notice shall render him liable to a fine of not less than 
twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars, in the discretion of the 
Court. The act to take effect immediately upon its passage. 
Of the committee which drafted this act Professor Smith was him- 
- self a member, and while admitting the justice of the proposition that 
the careful agriculturist, who exerts himself to keep down insect pests, 
should not be handicapped by the negligence of his neighbors in this 
respect, he is convinced that it will be almost impossible to enforce 
any law on the subject, the sentiment against informers rendering it 
extremely difficult to secure convictions on their testimony. The act 
as drafted, however, is to be called into effect only through the action 
of the County and State Boards of Agriculture, thus throwing the 
burden of enforcing it upon the official organization of the farmers, and, 
as Professor Smith remarks, where there is sufficient public sentiment 
to secure its enforcement such a law will not be a dead letter. 
INSECT LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA. 
The fruit-growers in Victoria, in spite of their strenuous efforts in 
favor of the noxious insect bill were unable to secure its passage 
through the last Parliament, which dissolved without giving such a 
bill consideration. 
LEGISLATION AGAINST INSECTS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
On another page we have noticed the proposed legislation against 
injurious insects in the State of New Jersey. Similar but less stringent 
measures were some time ago adopted by the Commonwealth of Massa- 
