26 GYPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. [Jan. 



SCOUTING WOEK. 



During the fall it became possible for the first time since 

 the beginning of the work under the present legislation to se- 

 cure the services of a considerable number of trained employees 

 for scouting operations. A combination of circumstances placed 

 in the labor market a large number of men familiar with the 

 moth and the best means for destroying it. The reduction in 

 the numbers of the gypsy moth in the Fells Reservation of the 

 metropolitan park system released many competent employees; 

 while, as an indirect result of the financial depression, contract- 

 ors who have made a specialty of clearing large private estates 

 of the moth pest found a lessening demand for their services, 

 and consequently were obliged to discharge a considerable num- 

 ber of their employees. With the approval of His Excellency 

 the Governor, the superintendent has employed some 70 scouts 

 in making a thorough examination of the territory extending 

 westward from the border of the known infested district, work 

 which heretofore it has been impossible to undertake. This 

 force was divided into gangs of from 5 to 8 men, each working 

 under the direction of an inspector; the whole scouting opera- 

 tions being directly in charge of Messrs. Harry Ramsey and 

 Saul Phillips, of the central field force. A thorough scouting 

 is also under way in the heavily wooded section of the North 

 Shore district, including parts of Beverly, Wenham, Hamilton, 

 Essex, Manchester and Gloucester. This section, containing, as 

 it docs, a large number of magnificent summer estates and many 

 miles of most beautiful drives, has been known to be generally 

 int'i-ted, but until this fall no complete inspection of the \v< Mid- 

 land areas here has been possible. Through an arrangement 

 with Col. \Vm. D. Sohier, whose energetic and effective co- 

 operation has been most valuable, the superintendent agreed to 

 have a thorough scouting made of the entire district, and, with 

 this as a basis, to present an estimate of the probable cost of 

 clearing it from the moth pests. We are assured that, as soon 

 as such an estimate can be made and a plan of the necessary 

 work formulated, we may count upon the liberal financial co- 

 operation of the North Shore towns and their residents in a 

 general campaign against the moths over the entire district. 



