MR. APPLETON'S RESIGNATION. 77 



In the mean time the recommendation of the Board for an 

 appropriation of $165,000 for the work of the year had been 

 considered by the legislative committees. The joint stand- 

 ing committee on agriculture had unanimously endorsed the 

 recommendation and had reported a bill to the House provid- 

 ing for an appropriation of $165,000. The committee on the 

 gypsy moth, insects and birds, together with many citizens 

 from the infested district, appeared before the committee on 

 expenditures and urged that the full amount of the appro- 

 priation be granted. But the latter committee, disregarding 

 the recommendation of the committee on agriculture, reported 

 a bill recommending an appropriation of $100,000. The 

 committee on the gypsy moth, insects and birds also urged 

 that a committee of the Legislature, consisting of three or 

 five, be appointed to fully investigate the gypsy-moth work 

 during the season and report to the next Legislature. This 

 was not done. 



When it became known later that the Legislature had not 

 approved the recommendation of the committee, and that only 

 $100,000 had been appropriated, Mr. Francis H. Appleton, 

 one of the original members of the committee, tendered to 

 the Board of Agriculture his resignation as a member of the 

 committee. The reasons given by Mr. Appleton were that 

 inasmuch as the committee had plainly stated that a certain 

 sum must be available in order to do all possible toward 

 extermination in one year, and as the committee was required 

 by law to use "all possible and reasonable measures" to 

 secure the extermination of the moth, and as with the $100,- 

 000 the committee could do no more, in his opinion, than to 

 continue the suppression of the moth, he felt it incumbent 

 upon him to resign rather than to attempt a task which he 

 believed impossible to accomplish with a less sum than had 

 been recommended. 



As the committee had been elected by the Board and del- 

 egated to this work, and as the Board would have no meeting 

 during the spring or summer, the other members of the com- 

 mittee considered it their duty to do all that was possible 

 with the appropriation made, and report the result to the 

 Board at its next annual meeting with such recommendations 

 as should at that time seem best. 



