82 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



moths in the woods and the great expense of exterminative 

 methods have been all repeatedly presented to the Legislature in 

 the annual reports of this Board, the amount appropriated for 

 each of the past two years has been only about two-thirds of that 

 recommended by the Board as absolutely necessary to do all that 

 could be done to advantage under the cii'cum stances. 



The law requires the Board " to use all reasonable measures to 

 prevent the spreading and to secure the extermination " of the 

 moth. The Board has apparently been successful in preventiug 

 the spread of the moth and has considerably lessened the area 

 known to be infested. It has never had an appropriation suffi- 

 ciently large to do all that might have been done in one year toward 

 the extermination of the moth. If the work is to be carried on 

 under the present statute, and the policy of extermination is to be 

 continued, we believe that two hundred thousand dollars should be 

 appropriated for the work of the coming year. 



The committee believes that the work of extermination should 

 be continued, but is also firmly of the opinion that, if the Legis- 

 lature is unwilling to appropriate the sum necessary for an aggres- 

 sive campaign for extermination, the law should be changed so 

 that, the Board of Agriculture shall be requh-ed to conduct the 

 work only along the line of preventing the spread of the gypsy 

 moth. The committee further believes that, if the Legislature is 

 unwilling to provide sufficient funds for restricting the spread of 

 the gypsy moth and holding it in check, the work should be dis- 

 continued entirely. The committee is not in favor of appropri- 

 ating inadequate funds for the work in hand. It seems unjust 

 to require the extermination of the pest while providing inadequate 

 means for the purpose. The Board of Agriculture has recom- 

 mended for each of the past two years an appropriation of one 

 hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, believing that sum was 

 absolutely required for the successful prosecution of the work. 

 The Legislature has appropriated only one hundred thousand 

 dollars, or about sixty per cent, of the sum asked for each of 

 these years.* 



* Fourth Report of the State Board of Agriculture on the work of Extermination 

 of the Gypsy Moth, January, 1895. 



