70 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



border of the infested area in an effort to check if possible 

 further spread of the moth into the interior of the State. Ap- 

 proximately 60,000 trees were burlapped and inspected daily 

 during the caterpillar season. The towns burlapped by the state 

 force were: 



Parsonsfield, Newfield, Shapleigh, Acton, Limerick, Wind- 

 ham, W'estbrook, Portland and South Portland. 



All the other border towns as far east as Bowdoinham and 

 Georgetown were burlapped and handled by the government 

 forces. It is too early now to learn the results of the summer 

 work, although it seems probable that the northern border has 

 been located and that further spread in that direction can be 

 prevented. During the summer practically all of the known 

 infestations in the border towns were stamped out. 



The average number of men per month kept in the field by 

 this department during the summer was twenty; by the U. S. 

 government, forty. 



Active field operations were discontinued from the middle 

 of August to Sept. 5th. At that time the regular fall scout 

 was begun in the towns of Kittery and Eliot and this work has 

 been continued throughout the year with especially gratifying 

 results. Weather conditions have been ideal for scouting and 

 a large extent of territory has been covered. Considerable 

 work has been done in the large woodland infestations of York, 

 Kittery, W^ells and South Berwick where thousands of egg 

 clusters were threatening the destruction of hundreds of acres 

 of woodlands and at a minimum of cost this danger has been 

 averted for at least another year. Approximately 100,000 egg 

 clusters have been destroyed during the past four months. It 

 is useless to try to estimate the number of caterpillars that 

 would have hatched from these eggs had the work not been 

 done but it is the opinion of the Field Agent that if these egg 

 clusters had been left untouched, large sections of woodland 

 would have been wholly devastated during the summer of 1912. 



In this connection it should be realized that whereas scouting 

 is probably more effective and economical than any other one 

 method of combatting the Gypsy moth, it will not in the long 

 run control the pest to such a degree as to prevent devastation. 

 To do this successfully scouting must be followed by summer 

 operations, i. e., burlapping and spraying. At present the funds 



