on could inflict
enormous damage on the entire South, at no cost to himself, involve
those states in enormous losses and the expenditure of vast sums of
money, yet go absolutely unpunished!

THE GYPSY MOTH is a case in point. This winged calamity was imported at
Maiden, Massachusetts, near Boston, by a French entomologist, Mr.
Leopold Trouvelot, in 1868 or '69. History records the fact that the man
of science did not purposely set free the pest. He was endeavoring with
live specimens to find a moth that would produce a cocoon of commercial
value to America; and a sudden gust of wind blew out of his study,
through an open window, his living and breeding specimens of the gypsy
moth. The moth itself is not bad to look at, but its larvae is a great,
overgrown brute, with an appetite like a hog. Immediately Mr. Trouvelot
sought to recover his specimens, and when he failed to find them all.
like a man of real honor, he notified the State authorities of the
accident. Every effort was made to recover all the specimens, but enough
escaped to produce progeny that soon became a scourge to the trees of
Massachusetts. The method of the big, nasty-looking mottled-brown
caterpillar was very simple. It devoured the entire foliage of every
tree that grew in its sphere of influence.

The gypsy moth spread with alarming rapidity and persistence. In course
of time the state authorities of Massachuestts were forced to begin a
relentless war upon it, by poisonous sprays and by fire. It was awful!
Up to this date (1912) the New England states and the United States
Government service have expended in fighting this pest about $7,680,000!

The spread of this pest has been retarded, but the gypsy moth never
will be wholly stamped out. To-day it exists in Rhode Island,
Connecticut and New Hampshire, and it is due to reach New York at an
early date. It is steadily spreading in three directions from Boston,
its original point of departure, and when it strikes the State of New
York, we, too, will begin to pay dearly for the Trouvclot experiment. It
is said that General S.C. Lawrence, of Medford, Massachusetts, has spent
$75,000 in trying to protect his trees from the ravages of this scourge.

THE RABBIT PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.--The rabbit curse upon
Australia and New Zealand is so well known as to require little comment.
In this case the introduction was deliberate. In the days when the sheep
industry was most prosperous, a patriotic