224 AGRICUIvTURE; of MAINE. 



Do not expect to find brown-tail moth caterpillars in any other 

 months than INIay and June. If people would only remember 

 what they read it would save a world of worry and trouble. 



BROWN-TAIL FUNGOUS WORK. 



June nth Prof. Roland Thaxter furnished spores from an 

 Isabella larva which he had found infested with a fungous dis- 

 ease. He inoculated about two thousand brown-tail caterpillars 

 nearly full grown with the spores of this disease and these he 

 gave to our field men to spread around in a badly infested wood 

 lot of oak trees near his summer residence at Cutts Island in 

 the town of Kittery. These caterpillars were liberated about 

 a dozen on a tree. They immediately ascended the trees in 

 search of food. These so inoculated the others that on the 29th 

 of June they could be seen hanging in clusters by the thousands 

 from the under side of the limbs. These were all dead from 

 the effects of the disease. About fifty acres of trees were so 

 treated. As a result of this work the brown-tails were nearly 

 exterminated in the immediate vicinity. This fall on looking 

 through this wood lot hardly a nest could be found, where 

 before the trees were literally filled with them. The same work 

 will be continued during the coming summer as far as may be 

 possible. Prof. Thaxter has kindly offered to furnish the rest- 

 ing spores to use in inoculating the larvae. 



The following table shows the appropriation made by the 

 cities or towns; money expended and number of nests taken 

 in the brown-tail moth work for 1907 as far as reported. 



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