1909.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. 11 



in the main adopted by the General Court, and have been most 

 helpful to the work of the department. There have been but 

 few cities and towns where the necessary appropriations have 

 not been made promptly, thus relieving this office of the duty 

 of enforcing the provisions of the law. As far as has been 

 ascertained, very little dissatisfaction from citizens has been 

 experienced by city and town officials in carrying out the re- 

 quirements of the law. The balance of approximately $75,000, 

 shown in the financial statement of Dec. 1, 1907, was used in 

 part in reimbursements to cities and towns for the work of 

 that year, and a portion carried forward to the 1908 account. 

 This small balance, together with appropriations of $300,000 

 for 1908, have been nearly all expended in this year's work. 

 The greatly improved conditions in the residential districts 

 have permitted us to take up the work in woodlands on a larger 

 scale than ever before, and thousands of acres of woodland have 

 been protected from the ravages of the moths. In some cases 

 this work has involved the thinning and spraying of trees over 

 large areas. In other cases it has been necessary to inspect 

 thousands of acres, locating the incipient colonies and then 

 stamping them out ; but we have made a substantial and as we 

 believe a satisfactory beginning on the great woodland prob- 

 lem, which, after all, is the most serious feature of the gypsy 

 moth infestation in Massachusetts. In several cities and towns 

 where serious woodland infestations exist the citizens have 

 awakened to the danger threatening their forests, and to the 

 fact that the Commonwealth cannot in justice to the other towns 

 in the district reimburse them its proportional part of the cost 

 of the work necessary to be done to protect them from the 

 gypsy moth. These towns and cities have in a most commend- 

 able spirit made additional appropriations from the municipal 

 treasuries sufficient to provide for the necessary year's work. 

 Notable examples of this are found at Weston and Lincoln, 

 where several thousand dollars in excess of allotments from the 

 central office have been spent. This generous policy has natu- 

 rally encouraged the department to deal liberally with such 

 towns, since it has been our constant policy from the beginning 

 of the work to give the greatest measure of help to those who 

 showed the greatest desire to help themselves. 



