298 -=-y NEW YOKE STATE MUSEUM 



been passed in ten of the States, viz., California, Colorado, Idaho, 

 Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, and 

 "Washington. A compilation of these Laws, which will be found 

 convenient for examination and as aids to future legislation, has 

 recently been made in a pamphlet of 46 pages by Mr. L. O. Howard, 

 and issued as Bulletin No. 33 of the U. 8. Department of Agri- 

 culture — Division of Entomology . California, it appears, has taken 

 the lead in resorting to legislation, moved thereto by the urgency 

 of preventing the introduction of species known to be destructive to 

 fruit culture in other parts of the country and from the Old World. 



Although the State of New York is subjected each year to losses 

 from insect injuries which would aggregate in amount to several 

 millions of dollars — a large proportion of which is preventable, — 

 no effort has hitherto been made toward the removal "of so onerous 

 a burden through a resort to legislative aid. An investigation of 

 the insect pests of the State which was commenced forty years ago 

 and continued, with a short interval, up to the present, has given to 

 the people of the State details of the life-histories and habits of all 

 of our more noxious insects, accompanied with methods for their 

 control. These studies are accessible in State reports to all who 

 may desire to consult them. Their recommendations are conceded 

 to be of great value, and if the information they contain be utilized 

 to the extent that it should be, the occasion will seldom arise when 

 aid from legislation is needed. 



There may be, however, insect infestation in some other State or 

 country of such a pronounced dangerous character, that its intro- 

 duction should be guarded against by quarantine laws. Or, an 

 insect may have multiplied to such an extent that its control is 

 entirely beyond individual effort, as in the case of the gypsy 

 moth in Massachusetts. Again, a newly introduced insect pest, 

 known only in a single locality but threatening an almost 

 unlimited range, may call for its extermination while the task 

 is simple and inexpensive.* Still another instance, is that of the 

 presence of the San Jose scale in the State of New York. There 

 is reason to fear that it has been sent in every county of the State. 

 In how many orchards it has found place can not be known, with- 



* Such an opportunity was lost when the pear-midge was confined to a few 

 orchards in the town of Meriden, Conn. 



