Plant Diseases and Insects. 75 



ery. Laws for the suppression of peach yellows exist in 

 Michigan, Ontario, New York, Virginia and Delaware, 

 although in the last state the law applies only to the south- 

 ern half of the state. New Jersey has a law, which was ap- 

 proved in May, for the suppression of any new diseases which 

 may enter the state. It is entitled "An act to prevent the 

 spread of fungous diseases of plants," and is as follows: 



"When the officers of the State Agricultural Experiment 

 Station shall discover any new fungous growth which is doing 

 injury to plants or vines, and while the same is confined to 

 limited areas, they are hereby authorized and empowered to 

 enter upon any lands bearing vines or plants so affected, and 

 destroy the same by fire or otherwise, as they shall deem best. 



"Any damage to private property resulting from the opera- 

 tion of destroying the said fungous growth by the officers of 

 the state, shall be certified to by them, and the amount of 

 damage paid to the owners thereof, from the same fund and in 

 the same manner as is paid to owners of diseased animals 

 killed by the State Board of Health. 



" Expenditures under this act shall not exceed one thousand 

 dollars in any one year. 



"This act shall take effect immediately." 



The most signal legislation of the year, however, is that 

 directed against the gipsy moth {Ocne?'ia dispar) in Massa- 

 chusetts. Public attention was first called to this insect by 

 Professor Fernald in a special bulletin of the Massachusetts 

 Hatch Experiment Station in November, 1889. The gipsy 

 moth appears to have been introduced into Medford twenty 

 years ago by L. Trouvelot, who was conducting experiments 

 upon silk culture. The insect escaped from him, and subse- 

 quently spread rapidly. In Europe the insect is regarded as 

 a great pest, for it is an omnivorous feeder. The state enacted 

 a law aiming at its destruction, and appropriated $50,000 for 

 the purpose. The first commission was a political one, and 

 little was accomplished, but the Governor dismissed it and 

 appointed new commissioners, selected from members of the 

 State Board of Agriculture. It is not yet determined if the 

 insect can be exterminated, but the venture is an important 

 one to the whole countr}^, because it will indicate the extent 

 to which we can hope for relief from insect depredations 

 through laws. J. G. Jack writes, in Garden and Forest, that 



