1907.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. Ill 



We were badly infested a few years ago, and it was a foregone con- 

 clusion that this year the state of affairs in Melrose would have been 

 terrible had it not been for the work of our citizens' committee and the 

 State work as planned by the State superintendent. Our committee 

 was formed early in the spring of 1904, a fund raised, and the moth 

 work systematized by wards. An organizer of the committee, having 

 always maintained my interest in the work and having had good oppor- 

 tunity to observe all over the city, I am, perhaps, as well able as most 

 people to give an opinion on the present status of the moth problem. 



AUG. i, 1906. 



REV. THOMAS SIMS, OF THE MELROSE HORTICULTURAL AND IMPROVE- 

 MENT SOCIETY, MELROSE. 



In comparison with last year at this time, we are very free from the 

 gypsy moth caterpillars in the center of Melrose, and it looks as if we 

 had mastered our problem. While early in the season there was promise 

 of a great many caterpillars, from some cause, whether spraying or 

 something else, their numbers are very greatly diminished. I believe we 

 have made such gain as to give reason for distinct encouragement. For 

 several years past the great bulk of owners and occupiers of property 

 have worked hard to destroy the moths. A great deal of work in all 

 has been done. Two years ago the gypsy caterpillars were most plenti- 

 ful. We had them in great bunches. On my place, from not more than 

 two dozen trees we took on an average daily for several weeks two 

 quarts of caterpillars. This is a low estimate. Last year they were 

 not in such great numbers as in 1904. The brown-tail caterpillars have 

 been decreasing steadily for three years past. 



My society, formerly the Melrose Amateur Gardeners' Society, did 

 much to inform the people in regard to the moths, and it paved the way 

 to the formation of the citizens' committee which did so much to fur- 

 ther the moth warfare in Melrose. 



AUG. i, 1906. 



CLARENCE Fox, SELECTMAN, SAUGUS. 



No comparison is possible between the conditions in the village of 

 East Saugus to-day and those of several years ago. In March, 1905, 

 before the present law was in force, AVC raised a fund in our village 

 for work against the moths, hired a gang of professional moth men, 

 and gave them the contract to clean the street trees. People joined in 

 the work by caring for the trees in their yards, and the result was that 

 we practically freed the village of the moths. But we should have had 

 to repeat the thing over and over again from year to year, because the 

 pests would have come in on us from outside. The State law, however, 

 went into effect, and the town employees continued our good work in 

 East Saugus, besides working in the residential parts of Saugus gener- 

 ally, so that to-day our village is, to all intents and purposes, absolutely 



