NATIONAL CONTROL OF INSECT PESTS. 95 



Mr. Washburn called attention to the large number of carabids 

 sometimes found in cabbage fields. He had found them extremely 

 abundant where cabbage maggots were present and believed that they 

 destined these, as he had found that when taken into the laboratory 

 they would feed freely on both maggots and puparia. He could 

 find no reference to this in the literature. 



The following paper was then read: 



NATIONAL CONTROL OF INTRODUCED INSECT PESTS. 



By E. Dwight Sanderson, Durham, N. H. 



At the close of a paper upon the cotton boll weevil, delivered before 

 the last meeting of this association, the writer offered the following 

 points for consideration : 



The boll weevil in Texas and the gypsy and brown-tail moths in New England 

 are raising some points in the relations between States which before .long will 

 need careful discussion and broad-minded treatment. Here we have insects 

 which the infested States fail to control, either through inability or neglect, and 

 they spread beyond their boundaries. Quarantines against them are compara- 

 tively useless unless the insects are controlled in the badly infested regions. 

 The National Government makes appropriations partly to aid in the study of 

 the pests for the information of the inhabitants of uninfested States and partly 

 to prevent spread, but it can have no authority in the latter respect without 

 State legislation. * * * But why should one State tax itself to subdue a 

 pest which is causing it loss and others gain from increased prices, as in the 

 case with the boll weevil, to prevent it from spreading to them? On the other 

 hand, if it is possible for the State to do so, is the General Government justified 

 in assuming the task if it had the authority? These are questions of a broad 

 nature which it seems to the writer are rather new and which must be met 

 sooner or later. In their solution an association such as this should take a 

 leading part. 



Pardon the repetition of these remarks, but they form a fitting 

 introduction to the present discussion. Further study of this subject 

 in relation to the Federal control of similar matters has forced the 

 writer to the conclusion that his statement above, " but it (the 

 National Government) can have no authority in the latter respect 

 without State legislation," is essentially incorrect and that the Federal 

 Government may have full authority conferred upon it by Congress 

 for handling the whole situation. The writer's attention to this whole 

 subject has been brought about by the invasion of New Hampshire by 

 the gypsy moth during the present season, to which he will refer later. 



The history of legislation against insect pests in this country is too 

 well known to the members of this association to need review. Some 

 few points may, however, be mentioned to show its present status. 

 Legislation against insect pests in the East was undoubtedly brought 

 about by the introduction and dissemination of the San Jose scale on 

 nursery stock in the early nineties. State after State passed laws 



