REPORT OF FIELD AGENT, GYPSY MOTH WORK. 97 



REPORT OF FIELD AGENT, GYPSY MOTH WORK. 



Hon. J. P. Buckley, Commissioner of Agriculture : 



I hereby submit a report of my work as Field Agent of the 

 Gipsy moth force during the year of 1912. 



Scouting operations were continued from January first, 1912, 

 until June first, except from January 17th to January 22nd, 

 during which time the work was discontinued on account of the 

 deep snow. During the first five months of the year, however, 

 the force was reduced in numbers since it seemed expedient 

 to save the greater part of our appropriation for the fall scout- 

 ing. On June ist scouting was discontinued and the summer 

 work began- 



Lack of funds made it impossible to engage in extensive 

 summer work in all the territory. Accordingly I persuaded 

 three of the worst infested towns to raise money for summer 

 work in those towns, with the understanding that whatever 

 amount was raised, an equal amount would be placed with it 

 by the State and the entire amount expended in the town mak- 

 ing the appropriation. York raised $500.00, Wells, an equal 

 amount, and South Berwick, $300.00. The work in these three 

 towns during the summer consisted of spraying and burlapping. 

 During a part of the month of June, the badly infested wood- 

 lands were sprayed with Lead Arsenate and in the neighbor- 

 hood of seventy-five acres were thus covered. In these wood- 

 lands, the trees were swarming with Gipsy moth larvc-r and 

 were in danger of immediate defoliation. The spraying was 

 effective as usual and killed practically all the larvae. Our 

 force was not large enough, however, to cover all the infested 

 woodlands and consequently in some places defoliation oc- 

 curred. During the remainder of the summer until Aumist 

 9th, the infested trees were burlapped and inspected by the 

 men as often as possible. 75,000 trees were thus burlapped 

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