BROKEN JAR COSTS £12,000,000.

Shannon News, 21 July 1925, Page 3

BROKEN JAR COSTS £12,000,000.

FIFTY-SIX YEARS’ BATTLE WITH MOTHS. BOSTON, April 4. ' Filty-six years ago a small glass jar fell out of a window of a house in Medford, Massachusetts. It contained a few moths brought to .America from Central Europe by Professor Leopold Trouvelot. These few moths were tlie founders of New England’s greatest plague —tlie gipsy motli, which has destroyed millions of pounds’ worth of crops. Professor Trouvelot was terrorstricken at his carelessness. He had hoped to breed a new type of silkworm, but he realised to the full tlie consequences which might—and did —ensue if the moths were not speedily captured or killed. lie worked day and night trying to Ira.ee them. Advertisements were inserted in all the newspapers calling on people to kill the insects. dhe readers smiled and said, ‘‘What harm can a few moths do 7” They are answered now with a bill for £J2,000,000. The moths began to ‘breed in Massachusetts, and soon a f 'ind was established to fight- them. It amounted in the first year to £IOO. Up to now the Federal Government; assisted by individual States, have contributed £5,000,000 as a fighting fund. Experts believe that the end of the war is in sight. All the separate States and municipalities which suffer from the moth plague have agreed to make a final onslaught, on the pest,. It is hoped that their joint action will result in the moth’s extermination.