REPORT OF SPECIAL FIELD AGENT. 



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



I herewith submit my fourth annual report as Special Field 

 Agent in charge of gypsy moth work. 



It may be well at the outset to state that the actual limits of 

 the district infested by the gypsy moth in the State of Maine 

 are not yet known, and will not be determined until such time 

 as funds for a more thorough examination of the outlying towns 

 by the trained scouts are available. 



To correctly ascertain the extent of the infested section and 

 to properly handle the same, a force of at least 75 trained men 

 might well be employed for the greater part of an entire year. 

 Such operations, however, have been impossible in view of the 

 great need of suppressing the moths in the badly infested wood- 

 lands of the towns in the southwestern part of the State. 



It has not seemed wise to spend too much of our limited ap- 

 propriation in scouting new territory, while in the badly infested 

 towns there has been an opportunity to destroy tgg clusters and 

 caterpillars by the hundreds of thousands, and thus relieve the 

 people of such towns from caterpillar annoyance and damage to 

 woodlands and orchards. The only course for the new Legis- 

 lature is to make such appropriation as shall, together with 

 those made by Congress, enable those in charge of the work of 

 suppression to prevent the further spread of this pest and grad- 

 ually reduce the infested area. The appropriation must neces- 

 sarily be larger than the last one made so that every infested 

 place, however small, can be attended to, even in the forests. 

 If this forest work is neglected by insufficient appropriations, 

 the moths in slightly infested places, like those in Acton, New- 

 field, Shapleigh, Gorham, Lebanon, Alfred and many other 

 towns in the northern part of York County, will spread rapidly, 

 and in consequence all of the valuable timber will be absolutely 

 destroyed by the feeding of the caterpillars. 



The owners of timber lands and orchards in the eastern and 



