8o AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



REPORT OF FIELD AGENT GYPSY MOTH WORK. 



Hon. IV. T. Guptill, Commissioner of Agriculture: 



In submitting my report to you for the year 1916, I will begin 

 by saying, no man can achieve results, gratifying to all sections 

 of the state, unless he is supplied with sufficient money to carry 

 on the work ; and I will emphatically say, less than $50,000 is 

 not sufficient. 



The work this year consisted chiefly of parasitism and check- 

 ing the spread of the moth. Both results were satisfactorily 

 accomplished. During the spring and early summer the field 

 force was sadly handicapped by continuous wet weather. We 

 deluded ourselves with the thought that the continuous rains 

 would have a tendency to give us an equitable reparation for 

 the loss of time entailed by the field force, by causing a preva- 

 lence of wilt disease in the g>'psy moth. But it proved other- 

 wise. It resulted only in impeding the work in the badly in- 

 fested area. The wilt did appear in some localities, especially 

 in York county, but not in sufficient quantity to be a resultant 

 factor in decreasing the number of larvae that the field force 

 would have done had the weather permitted them to work. 

 The persistent efifort which the crews displayed in vying with 

 each other in their respective territories, was a large factor ir 

 overcoming the stinted appropriation we had to work with. 



Our work on parasitism has been most gratifying and should 

 appeal to everybody in the infested area. There has been no sec- 

 tion of that area neglected. Thousands of parasites have been 

 liberated under the able supervision of John Cleary. How well 

 this work has been accomplished is apparent by the absence of 

 the brown-tail moth in many sections, and will bear him testi- 

 mony, while the perceptible decrease in all sections is a monu- 

 ment to his ability. 



I notice a great many people are afflicted with the erroneous 

 belief that we have a new and serious outbreak of the gypsy 



