210 ■ AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



REPORT OF SPECIAL FIELD AGENT. 



Hon. A. W. Gilman, Commissioner of Agriculture: 



Sir: — I have the honor to submit herewith my second annual 

 report as special field agent. 



The State work has gone far enough to reveal a most alarm- 

 ing state of affairs. The gipsy moth has been found spread 

 through the towns of western Maine and along the New Hamp- 

 shire border. It is apparent that the State is called upon to 



» 



make a most vigorous fight against one of the best known and 

 most important enemies of fruit and shade trees, scattered 

 throughout thirteen towns. With the development of the last 

 year and the experience gained, we are now able to present a 

 much more accurate statement of the existing conditions than 

 was possible at the time of the presentation of the first report. 



Following the winter work which consisted of cutting out and 

 burning dead wood, thinning out the tops of trees and burning 

 over the ground, scraping trees, pruning trees, tin-patching 

 holes, etc., we began to put the tanglefoot on the trees; then 

 the trees were burlapped, after which w^e began the spraying 

 operations which were carried on with great success. After 

 the finish of the spraying season the field forces were put at 

 work attending the burlaps, with good results. From June to 

 the end of August the whole of the force were engaged in 

 crushing the caterpillars under the burlaps, and in destroying 

 the pups. 77,048 caterpillars were taken and crushed and in 

 addition to this number hundreds of thousands were killed by 

 fire while burning the ground and stone walls. 160 pounds of 

 tanglefoot were used with good success, six and one-half bales 

 of burlap were used and 60,000 trees were burlapped. Twenty- 

 five barrels of crude oil were used in the burning operations 

 and 1,750 pounds of arsenate of lead were used in spraying. 



After the burlap season had finished we began the scouting 

 for tgg clusters and continued the same work up to the last of 



