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Rh adequate and too late to control the pest. Had the money been available when the brown-tail moth was first discovered, and had it been efficiently administered, we have no doubt that it might have been effectively controlled. How much loss it will now cause in years to come is entirely problematical, unless the European parasites become of immediate value, for there is nothing to prevent its spread over the entire east within a few years. Last year it spread over one hundred miles in New Hampshire. Again, when the boll weevil was discovered in south Texas, a representative of the United States Department of Agriculture appeared before the legislature of Texas and advised legislation which would prevent the growing of cotton in the infested counties, which grew but a small amount, for a few years, so that the pest might be exterminated, but he was literally laughed down. Had the federal government been able to step in at that time and enforce whatever measures seemed best to prevent the subsequent spread of this insect throughout the cotton belt, the subsequent loss of at least $22,000,000 to Texas alone in 1904 and the present certainly unpropitious outlook for the cotton interests of Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley might have been averted. Might not the introduction or subsequent spread of the miserable little New Orleans ant (Iridomyrmex humidis Mayr.), which is now becoming such a nuisance in New Orleans and in southern Louisiana, and whose spread through the south it seems impossible now to prevent or restrict, have been prevented and controlled, had we had such national legislation and organization?

Other instances might be cited, but these are well known to all. Who can tell what pest may not invade some one of our boundary states at any time and increase to such numbers that it will be impossible to prevent its spread before state legislation copes with it? It is to be regretted, but we may as well frankly admit that the present tendency toward federal control of all of these police duties is almost entirely due to the inefficiency of most of our state legislatures in dealing with such matters. Until very recently the states have been very reluctant to delegate any power to make and enforce regulations to any board or official. In doing this the Gulf states in general have the most desirable type of entomological legislation, permitting effectual work against any insect pests which may arise. In most of the states which have legislation upon insect pests, the official administering it is hampered by petty restrictions, and has no funds at his disposal for coping with any new pest which may require immediate action. The average state legislature is very wary of entrusting such powers to any scientist, assuming in many cases that it knows much more about the subject. The debates of the Texas legislature upon the boll weevil and the information given the writer by some of its members would prove amusing reading to the entomological fraternity. Congress, on the other hand, has consistently recognized that it must depend upon