REPORT OF FIELD AGENT, OYPSY MOTH WORK. 



71 



at the disposal of this department for the Gypsy moth work 

 permit summer work only in a limited measure. 



The following is a list of the towns scouted during the fall 

 of 191 1 and the number of egg clusters destroyed in each town: 



York 30,096 



FJiot 16.176 



Kitterv 15,384 



■«Wells 13.338 



South Berwick ,.598 



Berwick 4 .031 



North Bcnvick 3 ,790 



Lebanon 2,129 



Kennebunkport 1 ,449 



Scarboro 



■♦Kennebunk . . . 



Acton 



*Sanford 



South Portland. 



Wcslbrook 



♦Dayton 



Cape Elizabeth . 



488 

 399 

 31.5 

 271 

 118 

 111 

 109 

 27 



* Unfinished .Tanuary 1st, 1912. 



The average number of men per month employed by this 

 department during the scouting period was twenty-five. 



Since Oct. 15th the government forces have 'jeen vvodcing 

 on the eastern border of the infested territory. About forty 

 men have been kept in the field in that section. 



It has been noted during the past year that the people of this 

 State are beginning to realize more fully the vital iTi^.portance 

 of this Gypsy moth problem in relation to the preservation of 

 their orchards and shade trees. This has become evident from 

 the letters that have been received by this department and even 

 more by the fact that more and more spraying is being done 

 by the owners of orchards. This is especially true in the 

 southern towns of York county. Extensive spraying in those 

 towns has kept many orchards entirely free from the Gypsy 

 moth and has supplemented the state work in a large degree. 



PARASITE SITUATION IN MAINE. 



During the past year it has been noted by the Field Agen: 

 that several of the bad woodland colonies where no work was 

 done during the previous year, do not show the usual increase 

 in numbers of the moth. In these particular woodlands, it 

 seems evident that natural enemies (parasites) or dis.^ase mriy 

 have held the Gypsy moth in check although in other woodland 

 infestations no such encouraging conditions were found. This 

 is an extremely important matter and the United States Labor- 

 atory at Melrose, Massachusetts, is conducting a series of ex- 

 periments in Maine with the view of ascertaining what natural 

 causes, if any, are seemingly checking the pest in certain of 

 the infested woodlands. An efifort is also being made to deter- 



