No. 123.] REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 17 



At its last meeting, held in Boston November 11 and 12, it 

 was decided to reorganize the committee into a body to be 

 known as the American Plant Pest Committee, and to ask that 

 each State of the Union appoint four delegates to compose its 

 membership, these members preferably to be State officers 

 directly connected with agriculture, forestry, entomology and 

 pathology. The organization of this committee is now under 

 way, and promises to become one of the most powerful in- 

 fluences in the control of plant diseases and insect pests in 

 North America. 



The time has gone by when the problem of a new disease or 

 insect fails to affect the country as a whole. The appearance 

 of citrus canker in Florida, the pink boll worm in Texas, the 

 corn borer in Massachusetts, and the potato wart disease in 

 Pennsylvania are national questions; for while these pests may 

 not spread all over the country, their appearance affects the 

 well-being of the farmer, and consequently the whole people. 



This committee is also deeply interested in preventing the 

 introduction of new pests from other sections of the world, and 

 it is gratifying to report at this time that the Federal govern- 

 ment, through its Horticultural Board, has placed a quarantine 

 upon all shipments of nursery stock, this to take effect as of 

 June 1, 1919. 



At the present time the committee expects to place before 

 the country the situation relative to the corn borer, and by a 

 systematic campaign to bring the danger from this pest before 

 the whole country. The potato wart disease will also be taken up. 



It is hoped that the work of this committee will have a 

 direct effect on preventive and control measures. 



The Drainage Board. 

 The Drainage Board, created by the Legislature of 1918, and 

 the new drainage law have not been in operation long enough to 

 show any definite results, particularly as under war conditions 

 very little could be done. The enactment of this law seems to 

 mark the first step toward placing in the hands of the land- 

 owner an adequate plan whereby actual drainage operations 

 may be undertaken. 



