1906.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. 149 



single trip of a vehicle from Medford to infest a new locality. 

 But in 1889 the automobile was not in use nor for many 

 years after ; and so in ten years' time no far-away colonies 

 of the gypsy moth, excepting the one in 1899 at Georgetown, 

 were ever found as the result of the early outbreaks of the 

 moth. 



The increased percentage of long-distance riding for 

 pleasure, due to the introduction of automobiles, makes it 

 possible to account for the more frequent establishment of 

 sporadic colonies of the gypsy moth than in the past, and 

 for the scattering of the moths to a distance, as in southern 

 New Hampshire and particularly in the country south of 

 Boston. The great city lying to the north of Norfolk and 

 Plymouth counties in a sense served for years as a barrier 

 against invasion of moths from Medford and the other in- 

 fested centres. It long escaped serious infestation itself, 

 and its presence discouraged pleasure driving through it 

 from the moth district to the untouched country to the south- 

 ward. Neither Medford nor Maiden in the late eighties 

 took milk from Plymouth County farmers or supplied them 

 with swill. Regular traffic over the road from near-by 

 points naturally ended in the great city. In later years the 

 few serious infestations which occurred in Boston itself, such 

 as the Dorchester outbreak in 1895, contributed to some 

 extent to cause the infestation of near-by territory by the 

 usual means of hucksters', milk-dealers' and marketmen's 

 wagons and of regular and constant pleasure driving. In 

 illustration may be cited the contiguous city of Quincy, 

 which has now become a secondary centre of infestation. 

 Through teaming from the infested country north of Boston 

 also has always slightly helped to carry the insect to the 

 towns to the south of the city. But the automobile, which 

 annihilates distance, must be held to be chiefly accountable 

 in bringing about in recent years the infestation of the ex- 

 tensive country to the south of Boston over which the moths 

 are now known to be scattered. The erratic as much as 

 the long runs of the frequent automobile can alone explain 

 the presence of the moths in few and scattered numbers, not 

 only along main routes of travel, but in out-of-the-way 



