318 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the conclusion emphatically that extermination is not only 

 possible but entirely practicable. The report of Professor 

 Smith was a masterly production, and I deeply regret that 

 the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture has not seen 

 fit to publish it. 



Since all the experts who have carefully and fully investi- 

 gated the matter believe extermination to be possible, and, 

 as previously stated, we have already exterminated numerous 

 colonies, many of them in the most unfavorable places and 

 of considerable extent, there can be no question but that 

 what has been done in one place can be done in another, 

 and that the complete extermination of this insect is possi- 

 ble, so that the result is dependent entirely upon the action 

 of the Legislature. 



I have no doubt that the gypsy moth would have been 

 practically exterminated by this time if the Legislature had 

 each year made the full appropriation asked for, and made 

 it available early in the season. 



The next important question is, how long it will take to 

 complete the work of exterminating this pest and how much 

 it will cost. The estimate of time and money given in my 

 report of last year is as close an estimate as I can make at 

 this time, since we were not able during the past year to 

 make that progress in the work which we should have made 

 if the last Legislature had appropriated the full amount for 

 which the committee asked, instead of a much smaller sum. 

 That estimate was " an appropriation of not less than $200,- 

 000 a year for a term of not less than five years, and then 

 an appropriation of not less than $100,000 a year for a term 

 of not less than five years. After this an appropriation of 

 perhaps $15,000 a year for a period of five years will be 

 required." The first five years, with the full appropriation 

 of $200,000 a year, will reduce the territory to such an ex- 

 tent that with $100,000 a year for the next five years the 

 insect will be practically exterminated, and the remaining 

 five years will be spent in a careful watch of the entire ter- 

 ritory, lest a few insects might have been overlooked in 

 isolated localities. Unless a sufiicient amount is appro- 

 priated to make a very substantial gain each year, it would 

 be better to abandon the work entirely. 



