12 DANGEB OP SPEEAD OF GIPSY AND BEOWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



This insect is, therefore, a most undesirable neighbor, even if it were 

 not responsible for great injury to orchards and ornamental trees. 



CHARACTER AND VALUE OF IMPORTED IIURSERY STOCK. 



The actual value of the importations of nursery stock which is 

 thus jeopardizing the entire fruit and forest interests of this country, 

 as declared at customs during the years 1907 and 1908, of which we 

 have tabulated records, is about $350,000 annually, but little more 

 than the sum which the United States Government is spending every 

 year in an endeavor to ehminate the spread of the gipsy moth and the 

 brown-tail moth, and one-third the sum which the New England 

 States are spending annually in an attempt to control these pests. 



The major part of the imported stock consists of seedling apple, 

 pear, plum, and cherry from north France. There is also consid- 

 erable importation of ornamental and flowering plants, shrubs, and 

 trees. The latter is purely commercial, and comes in very largely 

 for the reason that it can be produced njore cheaply abroad than in 

 this country. Of the seedling stock, it is claimed by nurserymen 

 that the imported plum, cherry, and quince stock particularly is 

 much better material for grafting purposes than home-grown seed- 

 lings. In the case of the apple seedlings, however, the great mass 

 of such stock is still produced in this country and can undoubtedly 

 be just as well produced here, if not better, than in France or else- 

 where in Europe. 



The stock of the last two years which has been most infested has 

 come frgpa northern France, accumulated from various smaller or 

 larger niu"series, including a French seedling agency, managed by 

 an American corporation composed largely of New York nurserymen. 



If, as is claimed, some of this seedling stock is better than any that 

 can be produced in this country, it becomes all the more imperative 

 that such stock, or all imported stock, should be subject to rigid 

 inspection, and that every possible means should be taken to safe- 

 guard this coimtry from the further establishment of these two very 

 dangerous insect pests. 



EUROPEAN NURSERY CONDITIONS. 



During the summer of 1909, and also again in 1910, Dr. Howard, 

 who was in Europe principally to supervise the introduction of 

 parasites for the gipsy and brown-tail moths into Massachusetts, 

 made a careful inspection of the nursery regions of Holland, Bel- 

 gium, and northern France, and also England. 



The writer was in Europe, on a personal trip, in the summer of 

 1909, and made an examination of similar conditions in Holland, 

 Belgium, and parts of Germany. 



453 



