172 



SCIENCE 



N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 762 



average for 1898-1907. These are the facts, 

 whatever the explanation may he. 



John Franklin Crowell 



NATIONAL INSPECTION TO PREVENT IM- 

 PORTATION OF DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS 



Dr. L. O. Howard, chief of the Bureau of 

 Entomology of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, has returned to Washington from 

 Europe, where he has been engaged during the 

 past month in interviewing paid and volunteer 

 agents of the Department of Agriculture and 

 the state of Massachusetts who are assisting 

 in the importation into the United States of 

 the parasites and other natural enemies of the 

 gipsy moth and brown-tail moth. In the 

 course of this work, according to a bulletin 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Doc- 

 tor Howard visited France, Holland, Germany, 

 Russia, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and 

 England, and the results of the trip are al- 

 ready evidenced by the receipt at the parasite 

 laboratory, Melrose Highlands, Mass., of a 

 greatly increased amount of parasitized ma- 

 terial, which is being handled at that point by 

 expert assistants and will subsequently be 

 liberated in woodlands ravaged by the gipsy 

 and brown-tail moths. A great interest is 

 shown in the different European countries in 

 this very large-scale experimental work, and 

 the official entomologists and others are anx- 

 ious to do everything in their power to help 

 the United States. 



The brown-tail moth, it will be remembered, 

 was accidentally introduced into this country 

 upon plants imported from Europe. Many 

 other injurious insects have been brought in 

 in the same way, and the danger still exists 

 in the absence of any national quarantine and 

 inspection law. Such quarantine and inspec- 

 tion laws are in force in nearly all civilized 

 countries of the world, and the United States 

 is almost unique in its indifference to this 

 great danger. The amount of money that has 

 been spent by the different states in New Eng- 

 land and by the general government in fight- 

 ing the gipsy and the brown-tail moths alone 

 would support a national inspection service 

 for many years. Last winter there were 



brought into the United States, mainly at the 

 port of New York, thousands of apple and 

 pear seedlings from France which carried the 

 winter nests of the brown-tail moth. These 

 seedlings were distributed all over the country. 

 An effort was made, through the assistance of 

 the custom-house authorities and the rail- 

 roads, to trace of all these shipments to their 

 destination and to secure inspection and de- 

 struction of the injurious insects before the 

 opening of spring. It is probable that these 

 efforts were successful, but the experience em- 

 phasizes the necessity for a national law. 



Doctor Howard was instructed by Secretary 

 Wilson to visit the leading exporting nurser- 

 ies in Holland, France and England in order 

 to determine the efficiency of any inspection 

 service that might exist in those countries. 

 He found that the inspection service in Hol- 

 land is excellent, as conducted by J. Ritsema 

 Bos, of Wageningen, and his- assistants. 

 Nursery stock bearing the inspection certifi- 

 cate of these officials can be accepted in this 

 country without any danger. 



In France it was found that no govern- 

 mental inspection service exists and that the 

 certificates which have hitherto accompanied 

 nursery stock from that country can not be 

 relied upon. After consultation with the 

 leading nurserymen and the authorities of the 

 Ministry of Agriculture of France, Doctor 

 Howard was assured by the Director of Agri- 

 culture, M. Vassilliere, that the French gov- 

 ernment will immediately establish an official 

 inspection service, under the direction of Dr. 

 Paul Marchal, a thoroughly competent man 

 well known for his work on injurious insects, 

 so that in the future nursery stock coming 

 from France and bearing the inspection 

 certificate of the Ministry of Agriculture can 

 ■ be relied upon. 



In England, it was found that no govern- 

 mental inspection service for home nurseries 

 exists. Officials of the Board of Agriculture 

 assured Doctor Howard that it is the desire of 

 the board to establish such a service, but that 

 the demand must come from the English nur- 

 serymen. Members of the Council of the Na- 

 tional Association of Nurserymen, of Eng- 

 land, were then interviewed, and it seems 



