148 GYPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. [Jan. 



tory. And while it is true also that the bulk of automohil- 

 ing as was the case with pleasure driving in 1889 and is 

 to-day is confined within a moderate radius from a centre 

 of population, it is not true that the percentage of the longer 

 trips is the same with both sorts of travel. The total of 

 long drives in the case of the "auto" is greater in proportion 

 to the whole than it is or ever was in the case of a carriage 

 drawn by a horse. In other words, in proportion as horse- 

 less carriages have supplanted vehicles of the other sort, 

 the percentage of long-distance journeys in the sum total 

 of riding for pleasure is immeasurably greater than in the 

 past. 



The reason is not far to seek. The automobile, by reason 

 of its speed and its machine-made method of progression 

 which renders riders independent of all consideration of 

 horseflesh, tempts to both long and erratic runs, and so has 

 introduced a very irregular method of distribution. The 

 use of a machine which possesses speed and lacks sensibility 

 conduces to the invasion of sections necessarily unvisited by 

 a vehicle drawn by a horse from a distant centre of popula- 

 tion. Furthermore, the motor carriage incites to the explo- 

 ration of new country, for its speed so broadens its scope 

 of operation that no comparison of steam or gasoline with 

 horseflesh is possible. And so the roads of eastern Massa- 

 chusetts have been ridden over for pleasure more thoroughly 

 than ever before, especially those out of the beaten track for 

 carriages, and therefore comparatively little travelled before 

 the advent of the automobile. 



The speedy motor carriage making a long run from an 

 infested starting place or passing through a badly infested 

 locality might not necessarily go over the identical route 

 again or reach the same objective point ; but on its only 

 run to this outside point it might carry enough caterpillars 

 to establish there or en route a new colony of gypsy moths. 

 By this means only is to be explained most of the moth colo- 

 nies found remote from the central infested district in the 

 area which has become infested since 1900. There is no 

 question that in the " swarming year," 1889, the same thing 

 happened often, enough caterpillars being carried out on a 



