Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-09-16
NEW RESTRICTIONS

ing and branching out into new areas
ever since.
NEW RESTRICTIONS
Only since 1912 have we had restrictions
against bringing insects into the United
States. Now there are over % quaran-
tine regulations affecting foreign coun-
tries. Some of these prohibit importation
of certain products likely to be infested.
while others require inspection of stated
imports.
For instance, last year a regulation was
put into effect requiring that a foreign
shipper must obtain permit before he
can send nursery stock to this country
The stock--whether seeds, shrubs fruit
pits, or any other kind-must he inspected
by officials in the country from which
they come or by port inspection officials
of the Department of Agriculture over
here. IF a shipment is found to be in
tested with destructive insects. it is either
returned to the sender or burned.
Another regulation, effective since this
spring, prohibits importation of broom
corn without a permit and inspection, and
still another makes it impossible to bring
certain fruits across the Mexican bor-
der Every day, people unacauainted
with the insect immigration rules. try
to bring alligator pears, mangoes, guavaIs
or plums across the border. only to have
them conf1scated because Of the danger
of introducing the Mexican fruit fly.
The Mexican border offers one of tho
| easiest ways for an insect to immigrate
into the United States The cotton boil
weevil crossed the Rio Grande into Tex
as. presumably by flying. That was in
\ l1iy
the Atlantic coast, down into Florida, and
practically as far north as the cotton
belt extends. The boil weevil Is known to
have As enemies but in this country nat
ural destruction does not begin to keen
pace with the advance Of the weevil.
Many people rcnfound the boil weevil
with the pink boil worm Of cotton, an
other immigrant from Mexico The pink
, boil worm travelled first from India to
Egypt. From there it spread to Mexico
IN some Egyptian cotton. and now it Is
one of the worst pests of the Texas and
Louisiana cotton fields. The worm was
discovered in this country three years
ago but the two States affected have
been quarantlned only a month. The new
order rules that cotton cannot be moved
out OF the States without inspection.
INTERSTATE BARRIERS
There are a number of other State quar-
antines similar to this which are ordered
with the purpose of preventing the spread
of insect plaques. There Is now an in
! terstate quarantine In force in New Eng
! land to keep the Euopean corn borer from
spreading. and particularly from reach
| ing the great corn belt of the middle
West. Government entomologists arc now
In western States to make sure that the
| corn borer Is not quietly getting a start
there.
| Massachusetts lost 10 per cent. Of her
| corn crop last year-a reasonable loss
| where the corn borer is at work. To have
10 per cent. of the entire nations corn
crop consumed by an insect would be a
| tremendous blow. yet that would have
| happened inevitably II vigorous measures
had not been taken in the regions already
| affected.
Only this spring two shipments of
broom corn from Europe were found n
be badly infested with the corn borer.
| OF course they were not allowed to en-
ter, but for years before the war ship.
meets, clean and infested alike came into
our ports and scattered to broom fac
| tories everywhere.
Farmers rarely complain about an in
sect until it begins to affect their pocket
books, so that a bug may be at work
several years before 1t is brought to the
attention of the authorities. As many
kinds of pests produce over 100 eggs at a
time and as some species multiply at the
rate of two generations in a season, the
increase may be overwhelmingly swift
Posons. sprays of burning oil. destruc-
tion of the infested crop, and other he
roic measures have to be taken to reach
the vulnerable spot OF the apparently
nine-lived bugs. In some cases-the gypsy
moth for example-enemies of an insect
pest have been successfully introduced
to exterminate 1t.