February, ’20] 
FELT: EUROPEAN CORN BORER 
69 
August, altogether too late for effective work in the spring. A very 
considerable increase in the area of the infested region led the secretary 
of agriculture to ask for an emergency appropriation of $500,000 in 
addition to the $250,000 just mentioned and Doctor Howard sub¬ 
mitted to the Albany-Boston conference, held the last of August, an 
itemized schedule showing how it was proposed to use these funds. 
A special committee was appointed at the corn borer conference 
just mentioned and brought in resolutions, subsequently adopted 
without a dissenting voice, in favor of asking Congress for an appro¬ 
priation of $2,000,000 to be made available for use as rapidly as an 
effective organization to carry on the work could be secured and devel¬ 
oped. This was in addition to funds already appropriated. At the 
hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Finance, 
the request for $2,000,000 was strongly urged by a goodly number of 
commissioners of agriculture and official entomologists from the middle 
and eastern states, although a representative of the Federal Horticul¬ 
tural Board went on record to the effect that $500,000 was all that 
could be used advantageously at the present time. In view of these 
conditions, we could hardly expect more than the smaller sum and as 
a very pessimistic note was shortly thereafter voiced by an Indiana 
official (9), it is perhaps not surprising that Congress decided to put 
the entire matter over until the regular session. 
The secretary of agriculture has recommended to the present session 
of Congress an appropriation of $500,000 to be immediately available 
for European corn borer work. Basing estimates upon the work in 
New York state last spring, it would require approximately $200,000 
to clean up the eastern infested area in that state and about the same 
amount for the western territory, a total of $400,000. Common 
prudence would dictate some allowance for emergencies and the pos¬ 
sible discovery of additional infested territory. If these outlying 
areas are a serious menace to the corn belt, and this seems to be the 
consensus of opinion among economic entomologists, we can hardly 
recommend the expenditure of less than $500,000 in the New York 
state and adjacent territory. 
The situation in eastern Massachusetts and southeastern New 
Hampshire demands that some measures should be taken to prevent 
an undue multiplication of the insect. There is a possibility that the 
funds for the demonstration project, covering about six towns in the 
badly infested Massachusetts area may prove to be insufficient. There 
is also scouting, an essential phase of the work, testing on a large scale 
possibilities of control by modified cropping, quarantines, etc. It 
would seem as though at least $500,000 should be available for work 
of one character or another next spring in the New England states. 
