1908.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. 27 



This section cannot be longer neglected without serious injury 

 to its forests and consequent depreciation of property values, 

 not to mention the unspeakable annoyance caused by the cater- 

 pillar swarms which will soon be in evidence if their develop- 

 ment is not checked. In the scouting work in Worcester and 

 Middlesex counties, the roadsides, orchards and private estates, 

 as well as suspected woodlands, have been looked over by trained 

 men, with the anticipated although somewhat discouraging re- 

 sult that the gypsy moth has been found established in a con- 

 siderable number of the towns examined. 



In his report of January, 1907, the superintendent said 

 (page 24) : "It may be well to state at the' outset that the 

 actual limits of the district infested by the gypsy moth in 

 Massachusetts are not yet known, and will not be determined 

 until such time as funds for a thorough examination of the out- 

 lying towns by trained men are available. To correctly delimit 

 the infested district, a force of at least 100 trained men might 

 well be employed throughout the greater part of an entire year." 

 Our experience during the year 1907 has simply confirmed the 

 opinion expressed above. Since the advent of the automobile, 

 the scattering of the gypsy moth caterpillars has gone on apace. 

 Our scouting plans for the winter also include a thorough ex- 

 amination of the main automobile route from Boston to Spring- 

 field, with probabilities strongly in favor of finding moths in 

 such centers of population as Brookfield, Warren, Palmer and 

 Springfield. Should the moths be found in the latter city, it 

 will be desirable to continue the inspection southerly along the 

 line of travel toward New York as far as the Connecticut 

 border, and westerly to Westfield, Pittsfield and possibly down 

 the Housatonic valley. It is quite probable that scattering in- 

 festations will ultimately be found along the main lines of 

 automobile travel throughout the State. Thus it may be found 



t/ 



that the splendid system of State highways which the liberal 

 policy of our Commonwealth has provided, by increasing the 

 general use of the automobile, has contributed indirectly to the 

 scattering of the gypsy moth. 



The scouting operations of the year 1907 have developed the 

 presence of the gypsy moth at Ashby, Berlin, Bolton, Clinton, 

 Dunstable, Falmouth, Eitchburg, Franklin, Grafton, Leicester, 



