Hi' (iVTSV AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. [Jan. 



free of the moths, and a vast improvement appears over most of the 

 t<>\vn. 



Operations against the gypsy moth locally have been carried on with 

 a great deal of intelligence by the authorities. You would be astonished 

 this year at the way citizens also took hold to clean up their places. So 

 far as I have seen, there has been that private co-operation with the 

 Slate work which the framers of the present law contemplated. If the 

 same spirit is manifested elsewhere as in Saugus, the moth problem is 

 MII the way to being solved. 



As to the actual visible results of the State's campaign in Saugus, 

 throughout the residential parts of the town you can see to-day no strip- 

 ping along on the streets. Street trees and trees on private lands bor- 

 dering on roadsides are in good condition, and this result is just what 

 was planned for. Of course, if you look up back from the roads, you 

 can see abundant signs of the moth's ravages. But the imminent dan- 

 L:<M- of the farther spreading of the moths by vehicles as the result of 

 badly infested roadsides had first to be taken care of, and the problem 

 of the woodlands will come next. 



The good condition of our trees on and bordering streets to-day is an 

 object lesson to everybody in town. There was a time when I felt dis- 

 couraged, and feared that no headway could be made against the moths, 

 but the way the State has taken hold and the results already achieved 

 demonstrate that the pests can be checked. If, after the expenditure 

 of so much money in the town of Saugus, there should still be bad con- 

 ditions in the residential sections of the town, then there might well be 

 grave doubt if ultimate success against the gypsy moth could be 

 achieved. As to the woodland problem, it is only a question of suffi- 

 cient work being done, this being made possible by sufficient funds. 

 There is no doubt about this. The State has already demonstrated that 

 the moths can be suppressed along streets and in yards, and if this 

 result can be brought about in the village, the harder task of checking 

 the pests in the woodlands can also eventually be done. 



I do not think that the idea of the co-operation of the individual with 

 the town and State, upon which the present law is based, will fail in 

 practice. Once you get the moths so reduced in residential sections that 

 they can be handled at small expense annually, the citizens will not 

 complain of their small tax, and it will be only the smallest-minded man 

 who will grudge the necessary expenditure, even though large, in wood- 

 lands elsewhere in his town which protects him from invasion again. 

 while it benefits the owner of the woods. Such a man would lose caste 

 among his fellows. 



One more point I wish to make. I had an apple tree and a maple 



live which the gypsy moths killed. This was simply because I was un- 



ire of the nature of the pest, and of the best way to fight it. The 



first I knew of the danger the maple was in was when I heard the rat- 



