860 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



1891 directed the Board to provide and execute measures 

 for the extermination of the gypsy moth. This action was 

 in response to a pul^lic demand. That Legislature and those 

 following believed in extermination ; so did this committee 

 and the Board of Agriculture ; and the result, as declared 

 by the investigating committee of the Legislature of 1900, 

 that " There are to-day, so far as known, no large colonies," 

 proved the wisdom of the Legislatures and the Board. 

 While there were those who, all these years intervening 

 between 1891 and 1900, questioned the policy of extermina- 

 tion, and while the committee was handicapped and the work 

 hindered by delayed action and inadequate appropriations, 

 nevertheless the Board, the committee and the Legislature 

 never gave up the idea of extermination from the first day 

 until the close of the work this year. This view was in 

 accord with the counsels of all economic entomologists of 

 note throughout the country who had investigated the work. 

 With this view the work was carried forward with success 

 each year and the end was near at hand. 



The Board of Agriculture did not seek this work ; it was 

 thrust upon it hy the State. Its members have received no 

 compensation for services which have been freely given. 

 The work of the Board in procuring the enactment of the law 

 against worthless fertilizers was for the benefit of the farmer 

 largely ; in its grand record in stamping out pleuro-pneumo- 

 nia, cattle owners and beef producers were most deeply inter- 

 ested, and its perfect success has saved millions of dollars to 

 the country ; but in this case the work is not primarily for 

 the farmer only. This insect is located largely in the metro- 

 politan district ; it feeds on every green thing ; the ever- 

 greens are killed by a single defoliation ; the deciduous trees 

 will withstand two defoliations, unless leafless for too long a 

 time, as in the Burlington colony. 



The investigating committee of the Legislature of 1900 

 made its report. We will not criticise it, but, that its find- 

 ings may have due weight and just consideration, we place 

 on record, for the perusal of those who may in the future 

 examine into this subject, as a part of this report, the testi- 

 mony of one who was a member of the second Gypsy Moth 



