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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 16 
one of four things,—eradication, isolation, control, or merely watchful 
waiting. 
In making this decision we are first of all hampered by unfamiliarity 
with what is usually a foreign pest, and by our inability to foretell its 
possible capacity for damage; there are also our own human limitations 
to be considered. Given enough time the facts can be ascertained and 
the decision made, but many such problems are extremely urgent and 
deserve speedier solution than can be given by the leisurely work of one 
or two investigators who are too often young or inexperienced men. 
What such cases most need is “first-aid” research, the kind that gave 
Edison the incandescent lamp, the kind that builds a bridge out of a 
barb wire fence or patches a tire with spearmint. 
When a decision of the kind referred to is required, we ought to be 
able to turn loose on it at once an energetic force with both the numbers 
and ability to get enough of the vital features of life history and habits 
to enable us to decide our future course. In the past, and to a large 
extent still, funds, organization, and perhaps we should add, general¬ 
ship, have been inadequate for concentrated activities of this kind. 
But there is no reason why we may not plan for the future an organized 
method of bringing large-scale, intensive effort into action for the quick 
solution of emergency problems of this nature. 
Going on from these weaknesses in the establishment of a quarantine, to 
the methods of the quarantine itself, there is one feature that deserves 
emphasis. It is the vast difference between a paper quarantine and a 
real one. However deeply a government official may reverence the 
grandeur of his own authority, unless he takes adequate means to en¬ 
force his promulgation only a few conscientious souls will pay any 
attention to it. It is perhaps going too far to say that no quarantine 
should be issued for which no provision is made for enforcement, but 
the truth of the matter is that real results from any quarantine are due 
to the watchful, active field man rather than the central office. To 
erect a quarantine without providing the machinery of enforcement is 
too much like trying to carry water in a sieve. 
Of almost equal importance is the policy that the means and methods 
of enforcement shall be adequate to the desired end. To use a homely 
proverb one should not send a boy on a man’s errand. This does not 
mean that all quarantines require the same rigid and absolute type of 
enforcement. In many cases complete isolation of a pest is impossible, 
or at least impracticable, and the only thing that can be done is to lessen 
or delay its spread. But whatever the degree of restriction aimed at, 
