§ MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S.E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that locusts are largely imported in Russian hay; and, as the country has suffered from them before, whether the Department will investigate the possibility of their eggs germinating; and whether, under the circumstances, he will at once prohibit the importation of foreign hay?
§ MR. H. GLADSTONE (for Mr. H. GARDNER)No information has reached me which would suggest that locusts are being imported in Russian hay, and the inquiries I have instituted lead me to think that the paragraphs which have recently appeared in the newspapers on this subject are based on the fact that lucerne hay from the Argentine frequently contains large numbers of dead locusts. The possibility of danger from this cause engaged my careful attention soon after my advent to Office, and I am assured that there is practically no risk of eggs being brought over with hay, and that if they were so imported our climate offers 358 no facilities for the establishment of the pest here.
§ MAJOR RASCHI should like to state that if the hon. Gentleman doubts my assertion, I have several specimens here to show him.