8 SUPPRESSION OF INSECT PESTS AND PLANT DISEASES. 



Committee on Legislation. 



W. B. Alwood, Yirginia. 



C. M. Hooker, New York. 



J. Van Lindley, North Carolina. 



E. M. Warden, California. 



N. J. Baclielder, New Hampshire. 



D. Demarest Deiiise, New Jersey. 



E. S. Henry, Connecticut. 

 C. M. Hobbs, Indiana. 



E. S. Goff, Wisconsin. 



F. M. Webster, Ohio. 



The x)residing officer next called for the reading of papers. The first, 

 by Mr. B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Division of Vegetable Physiology 

 and Pathology, United States Department of Agriculture, was as 

 follows : 



Plant Diseases and the Possibility of Lessening their Spread by 



Legislation. 



It needs little argument to prove that the enemies of cultivated plants ai^ 

 steadily increasing, and I think it can be easily shown that they Avill continue to 

 increase so long as the conditions, for which we are in large part responsible, remain 

 as they are at present, I do not by any means regard this as a calamity. On the 

 contrary, I look ujion the fact that our insect and fungous foes are increasing as 

 direct proof that we are progressing, for, as Professor Bailey has said, " Oar enemies 

 increase because cultivation induces change of habits in wild organisms; because 

 it presents an ever-increasing variety of food, or host plants ; because the food sup- 

 ply is large and in more or less continuous areas; and finally, because the natural 

 equilibrium, or tension, is destroyed." It follows, therefore, that the more we put 

 forth our energies to improve our native plants or to change their habits; the more 

 we endeavor to increase the variety and number of our cultivated vines, trees, and 

 shrubs ; the more we e::tend our orchards, our vineyards, and our fields, just so much 

 more do we disturb the equilibrium in nature, and just so much more must we 

 expect to burden ourselves with the work of maintaining this unstable condition 

 by more or less artificial means. Where an insect or fungus had one chance a hun- 

 dred years ago to wax strong and spread, it has now a thousand chances, for unbroken 

 orchards and vineyards and millions of nurserj^ trees cover the country Avhere then 

 cmly wild plants grew. 



It is but natural, then, that man, seeing the onward march of his enemies, should 

 look about him and wonder how it will all end, and how he, as an individual, is to 

 obtain relief. In many cases he has found a way of doing this by adopting certain 

 more or less empirical methods. Again, with a fuller appreciation of the funda- 

 mental princijjles underlying plant growth, he has learned, partly by intuition, to 

 keep his plants in health, and when he has reached this stage he stands far in advance 

 of his neighbor who waits until his plants are diseased and then begins to look about 

 for a spraying apparatus. It frequently follows, however, that with all his efforts 

 he is not able to help himself, and'then, in accordance with what he considers his 

 privilege, he appeals to the State, believing, or at least hoping, that by legislation 

 he can even up matters to the advantage of himself and the detriment of his foes- 



In answer to such appeals a number of State laws have been enacted. Some of 

 these have been partly satisfactory, but none have served fully the object for which 

 the7 were intended. This is nothing more than might have been expected, seeing 



