38 
done and has been economically done. When we say that it has 
been wisely done, we mean that, admitting that the State fight is 
or was to be for the extermination of the species, the steps taken 
have been wise ones, and after a review of the entire work, and 
after the consideration of what is known as the habits of the insect, 
as well as of local conditions in 1889, it can not bnt be admitted 
that the effort of the State to exterminate the insect has also been 
wise. It is true that a large amount of money has been expended, 
and it is also true that much more money must be expended before 
extermination can be accomplished; but it is undoubtedly safe to say 
that the money which has been and will be spent by the State in this 
work is but as a drop in the bucket to the loss which would have been 
occasioned by the insect had it been allowed to spread unchecked. 
This loss would have fallen not 011I3- upon the State of .Massachusetts, 
but upon other States of the Union, so that we may say that the State 
work has not only been wisely done, but that it has been patriotically 
done. At the present time there can be little doubt that the extermi- 
nation of the insect is possible and that it will be only a question of a 
few years, if adequate State appropriations are continued. The simple 
fact that it has unquestionably been exterminated over considerable 
stretches of territory and that extensive colonies existing in the most 
disadvantageous territory for the prosecution of remedial work have 
been so thoroughly destroyed that not an individual has been found 
for three years with the most rigid annual inspection is sufficient proof 
of this possibility, for what can be done for one section like this can be 
done for all, if the means be sufficient. 
Thus the questions as to whether the State has done the right thing 
in appropriating for the extermination of the insect instead of for hold- 
ing it in subjection, and as to whether the money has been used in the 
best possible way to forward this end, may both be answered emphati- 
cally in the affirmative. The condition of the infested territory at the 
time of writing (November, 1897) is by far better than it has ever been 
before. This fact is largely owing to the promptly available appro- 
priations of January and February, 1897. A great amount of admi- 
rably effective work was done at the critical time of the year, and 
the results are obvious. The writer believes that the condition of 
the entire infested territory at the present day is such that with the 
prompt appropriation of the amount asked for by the committee at the 
beginning of the coming session of the legislature the work which will 
be carried on during 1898 will be of so effective a character that even 
those who most gravely doubt the policy of the State efforts will be 
convinced of the efficacy of the work. A continuation of the appro- 
priations for a few more years is unquestionably a necessity. Were 
the appropriation to lapse a single year, the work which has been done 
during the past six years would largely be lost. The $775,000 already 
appropriated would have been spent in vain. 
