88 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
no use spending large sums in Massachusetts. The western frontier is 
the place to begin because there is where the battle will be won or lost. 
If the government representatives honestly believe that this insect 
cannot be controlled we will all respect and admire them if they will 
stand up and say so. We will then know what to do next; but as long 
as we cannot get a statement of policy, we are very much handicapped. 
We would like to know what the government is really and seriously 
intending to do about the corn borer. The great corn center of this 
country is vitally interested in that question. 
Mr. E. P. Felt : It seems desirable to correct one or two impressions. 
I am very well aware that one can go into the European corn borer 
territory either in New York or Massachusetts and find a variety of 
conditions, many diametrically opposite. It is not the conditions but 
what 'they signify which is really important. It is my impression that 
Dr. Marlatt has not correctly estimated, presumably unintentionally, 
the infestation in western New York. There are fields in that section 
where it is comparatively easy to find several hundred borers per acre 
and generally speaking it is not difficult to draw the line between in¬ 
fested and uninfested territory. This does not harmonize very closely 
with figures given above and tending to show a very sparse infestation. 
The discrepancy simply illustrates the necessity of interpreting data 
and making due allowances for the conditions under which they were 
obtained. We found last spring that we could go into a section and 
approximate the infested area very closely. This was done during 
midwinter and fortunately operations were greatly facilitated by a 
remarkably light covering of snow. Eight or ten inspectors of the 
Department of Farms and Markets, working under such unfavorable 
conditions for three or possibly four weeks, established the approximate 
boundaries of the infested area. The findings of that time, it is a 
pleasure to state, were largely justified by subsequent developments. 
From my knowledge of the New York areas I feel that there are 
moderately definite limits to the infested territory in both the eastern 
and western portions of the state and that it is practical to follow up 
the general line of work undertaken last spring and keep the insect 
down to a minimum in an effort to check its spread to other 
sections. 
It appears unsafe to assume that it may be found in other parts of 
the country. We cannot say that it does not occur in remote areas 
and on the other hand we fail to find in this possibility a justification 
for relaxation in effort or a material modification of policy. 
The situation in New York state with its limited injury is such that 
it is impossible to obtain a large appropriation for clean-up work 
because the matter is of more importance to other states than to New 
