February, ’20] FELT: EUROPEAN CORN BORER 6^ 
tion but if we wait until everything is known very little or nothing 
will be accomplished. 
Quarantine and Extermination 
The introduction of the San Jose scale in the east was a prime 
factor in bringing about the establishment first of state and later of 
federal quarantines, both designed to limit and prevent the distribu¬ 
tion of injurious insects and plant diseases. Quarantines, like other 
human agencies, have their limitations and if they are to attain the 
fullest measure of usefulness, should be supplemented by exterminative 
measures. 
There are several fundamental weaknesses in our efforts to extermi¬ 
nate insects. In the first place, it appears very difficult to secure a 
general unanimity of opinion as to the economic status of a pest before 
it has spread to a material extent and caused serious losses. Such 
delays give the insect an opportunity to multiply and if it be reasonably 
active and prolific, it may within a season or two escape beyond all 
reasonable possibilities of control. Then there is the necessity of 
securing funds from the state or national government and in the case 
of Congress at least it is very difficult to secure special appropriations 
with a reasonable degree of promptitude. 
These conditions are evident to all. Should we not, therefore, 
seek to provide in some manner or other for a reserve fund which could 
be utilized for just such emergencies? It would make possible the 
beginning of operations at the outset and at the very time work could 
be prosecuted to the best advantage. It of course follows that investi¬ 
gation and scouting should also be pushed so far as necessitated by 
conditions but, if we are correct in our judgment, these three activities 
should be in a measure coordinate and interrelated rather than one 
being dependent upon the others. Our present quarantine laws are 
the outcome of years of work and desirable modifications along the 
lines outlined above can hardly be expected without systematic effort 
for presumably several years. • : 
Control Work and Appropriations 
Practically speaking there has been no general control work in the 
field aside from that done by the states of Massachusetts and New 
York. The state of Massachusetts attempted to compel property 
owners to clean up infested land at their own expense, the state even 
doing the work and assessing the costs against the property. Subse¬ 
quently the Federal Bureau of Entomology undertook a limited amount 
of this work in Massachusetts on a cooperative basis and late in the 
spring of 1918, nearly $100,000 was expended by the state of Massa- 
