NATIONAL CONTROL OF INSECT PESTS. 99 



greatest value can hardly be doubted after a brief glance at the his- 

 tory of the worst introduced insects of the last twenty-five years. 

 Had there been a Federal official with authority to proceed and 

 stamp out and control the San Jose scale when it first appeared in 

 the East, could not its spread have been to a very large extent pre- 

 vented, if not, indeed, entirely stopped? Or, similarly, if a Federal 

 official had commenced the extermination or control of the gypsy 

 moth, in the eighties, before the work was taken up by Massachusetts, 

 and had supervised the work of that State, being ready to step in and 

 prevent the subsequent spread of the pest sufficient to endanger the 

 neighboring States, would not the alarming conditions now existing 

 have been to a large extent prevented? The same is true of the 

 brown-tail moth. The gypsy moth committee of Massachusetts 

 fully appreciated the danger of this pest, which in many respects is 

 worse than the gypsy moth, but they had no funds with which to 

 combat it. Later, a small appropriation was made, but it was en- 

 tirely inadequate and was made too late to control the pest. Had the 

 money been available when the brown-tail moth was first discovered, 

 and efficiently administered, we have no doubt that it might have 

 been effectively controlled. How much loss it will now cost in years 

 to come is entirely problematical, unless the European parasites be- 

 come of immediate value, for there is nothing to prevent its spread 

 over the entire East within a few years. Last year it spread over 

 100 miles in New Hampshire. Again, when the boll weevil was dis- 

 covered in southern Texas, a representative of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture appeared before the legislature of Texas 

 and advised legislation which would prevent for a few years the 

 growing of cotton in the infested counties — which grew but a small 

 amount — so that the pest might be exterminated ; but he was literally 

 laughed down. Had the Federal Government been able to step in 

 at this time and enforce whatever measures seemed best to prevent the 

 subsequent spread of this insect throughout the cotton belt, the sub- 

 sequent loss of at least $22,000,000 to Texas alone in 1904 and the 

 present certainly unpropitious outlook for the cotton interests of 

 Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley might have been averted. 



Might not the introduction have been prevented of the despicable 

 little New Orleans ant (Iridomyrmex humilis Mayr) which is now 

 becoming such a nuisance here in New Orleans and southern Louisi- 

 ana and whose spread through the South it would now seem well-nigh 

 impossible to prevent or restrict, and might not its spread have been 

 controlled when it was first discovered had we had such national 

 legislation and organization? 



Other instances might be cited, but these are well known to all. 

 Who can tell what pest may not invade some one of our boundary 



