774 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 675 



when the state again, took hold of the 

 remedial work in 1905. In fact, so greatly 

 had the territory increased, so greatly had 

 the insect multiplied as to do away prac- 

 tically with all idea of absolute extermina- 

 tion. An attempt at extermination on the 

 same scale on which the attempt was previ- 

 ously made would almost bankrupt so rich 

 an organization as the Commonwealth of 

 Massachusetts. In the meantime, also, the 

 insect spread beyond the borders of this 

 state into Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 

 Hampshire, and also, as has recently been 

 discovered, into Maine. At last the gen- 

 eral government was appealed to, and was 

 appealed to distinctly in the terms of aid 

 "to prevent the further spread of the 

 moth." The brown-tail moth had in the 

 meantime obtained a foothold in New Eng- 

 land and had spread far and wide, and it 

 too was included in the terms of the act of 

 the general government, and also in the 

 terms of the act of the state of Massa- 

 chusetts. Appropriations were made by 

 congress for expenditure during the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1907, of $82,500, and 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, of 

 $150,000. 



In the meantime, the state of Massachu- 

 setts had appropriated under a very wise 

 law $300,000 to be spent in the years 

 1905-8, and has appropriated again, the 

 last winter, in cooperation with infested 

 towns. 



The states of Maine, New Hampshire, 

 Connecticut and Rhode Island have also 

 during the past winter made small appro- 

 priations, covering operations for the next 

 year or two. Here, then, is a gigantic 

 effort in which no less than five states are 

 making separate appropriations and are 

 cooperating with the general government, 

 which also makes an independent appro- 

 priation, the whole amounting to several 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars, in an 

 effort which, in its present phase, is de- 



voted to the restriction of the further 

 spread of these two pests, and toward re- 

 lieving the conditions of damage which 

 exist in the infested territory, until such 

 time as the large scale experiment hereto- 

 fore described in the introduction of for- 

 eign parasites of both species shall have 

 culminated in a reasonable degree of 

 success. 



No larger scale woi-k has probably ever 

 been done, nor has any work in economic 

 entomology ever been done in a more effi- 

 cient and practical way than this combined 

 work of the several states and the general 

 government being carried on at the present 

 time. The leader in this work has been the 

 state of Massachusetts. Aroused by the 

 disastrous conditions brought about by the 

 lapse of appropriations in the years 1900 to 

 1905, the state has taken hold of the prob- 

 lem with an energy and intelligence com- 

 manding the greatest respect, and it has 

 been this attitude on the part of the state 

 that has induced the general government 

 to assist on the principle that "Heaven 

 helps those who help themselves." 



It is interesting that the section of eco- 

 nomic zoology of the Seventh International 

 Congress should hold its meeting in Boston, 

 the center of this great piece of economic 

 work, at a time when its results can be 

 plainly seen, and visiting members should 

 utilize the opportunity to familiarize them- 

 selves with the details of this work. Very 

 wisely, the work of the state of Massachu- 

 setts has been placed in the hands of Mr. 

 A. H. Kirkland, a trained entomologist 

 and a man of great executive ability, and 

 in his hands it has become a great object 

 lesson. 



While the work already mentioned has 

 perhaps had the most important bear- 

 ing upon what may be termed "the rise of 

 economic entomology" during the past 

 dozen years, there has been an enormous 

 am,ount of other work, of almost equal im- 



