THE WORK OF 1895. 



83 



The Work of 1895. 



The Legislature of 1894 had adopted a resolve request- 

 ing the senators and representatives from Massachusetts in 

 the Congress of the United States to urge upon Congress the 

 necessity of prompt and vigorous action to exterminate the 

 gypsy moth, and to use their influence to secure from Con- 

 gress an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars to 

 assist this Commonwealth in defraying the necessary ex- 

 penses of the work. 



The Board of Agriculture was notified by the agricultural 

 committee of the United States Senate that a hearing would 

 be given on Friday, Jan. 4, 1895, upon the resolve presented 

 by the Massachusetts Legislature. A committee consisting 

 of Francis H. Appleton, vice-president, and Wm. R. Ses- 

 sions, secretary, of the Board of Agriculture, accompanied 

 by the director of field work, appeared on January 5 before 

 the Senate committee on agriculture, and also before the 

 committee on agriculture of the United States House of 

 Representatives, at a special hearing upon a resolution in- 

 troduced into Congress by Hon. William Cogswell, which 

 provided for the appropriation asked for by the resolution 

 of the Massachusetts Legislature. The committee also pre- 

 sented the matter to Hon. J. Sterling Morton, secretary of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture. Later, a re- 

 solve appropriating forty thousand dollars for the extermina- 

 tion of the gypsy moth passed the United States Senate but 

 was defeated in a conference committee chosen from both 

 houses. 



At the annual meeting of the Board of Agriculture, Feb. 

 6, 1895, Mr. Wm. H. Bowker, a member of the committee 

 on the gypsy moth, insects and birds, retired from the Board, 

 his term having expired on that day. Mr. Bowker had been 

 a prominent member of the Board, and its reorganization 

 was the outcome of his suggestions. The two vacancies in 

 the membership of the committee, left by the resignation in 

 1894 of Mr. Appleton and the retirement of Mr, Bowker, 



