140 GYPSY AND BKOWN-TAIL MOTHS. [Jan. 



vation, with its dense growth of oak and other trees, its 

 rocks and ledges, offers the same difficulties to a campaign 

 against the gypsy moth as are found in the Fells, and it is 

 of utmost importance that the pest be wiped out here without 

 delay. If this is not done, the example presented by the 

 area north of Boston shows what the result will be in the 

 future. The insects will gain yearly in increasing ratio, 

 until only a long and most costly campaign can bring them 

 under control, while in the mean time many valuable trees 

 will be killed. 



Conifers, stripped of their leaves, will succumb in one 

 year ; deciduous trees, with greater recuperative powers, 

 will withstand the ravages for a few years longer ; but 

 where the moths are neglected, the ultimate result will be 

 that instead of green trees our wooded parks will be dotted 

 with dead and dying stubs, the expense of removing which 

 may be far beyond the amount now necessary to clean out 

 the insects, or at least to reduce the infestation to a degree 

 where a slight annual expenditure will hold them in check. 

 If our parks are to be preserved, the moths must be fought 

 persistently wherever they occur. 



THE WOODLAND PROBLEM. 



The examinations made by our inspectors have developed 

 the fact that in nearly all the woodlands in the central in- 

 fested district the gypsy moth occurs in alarming numbers, 

 while the brown-tail moth is also very much in evidence. 

 This severe woodland infestation constitutes the greatest 

 menace to the successful control of the gypsy moth. So 

 long as the woodlands remain severely infested, it is im- 

 possible to keep streets and residential sections free from 

 the pest. These woodland colonies, traversed by roads, 

 boulevards and cart paths, yield in the caterpillar season a 

 multitude of swarming insects, which travel outward in all 

 directions, stripping the foliage as they go. What is more 

 important they drop in large numbers upon passing vehicles, 

 and are thus transported over wide areas, although the effect 

 of the scattering is most noticeable within a few miles of the 

 colonies. Thus the insects are able to reinfest sections from 



