18 THE BROA\'X-TAIL MOTH. 



special interest, and we reproduce a few of them, to give an 

 adeiiuate idea of tlie real significance and importance of this 

 new pest of fruit and shade trees. 



Statements from Citizens. 

 Mrs. C. D. Chase, 18 Ivaloo Street, Somerville, says: — 



We first noticed the brown-tail moth caterpillars in 1895. They 

 were so close together they looked like brown fur. We found 

 them on the trees and fences, in the house, and even found their 

 cocoons on the Avindow screens. In 1H'J7 they were so thick we 

 could not go out of doors without getting them on our clothing. 

 The front of the house and the pear trees in the garden were 

 covered with them. That summer the pear trees looked as if a 

 forest fire had swept over them. The second brood did not seem 

 to trouble us as much as the first. For the past two years we have 

 not had any fruit ; the trees blossomed this year, but the fruit 

 dropped off. 



Mrs. E. E. Bailey, 21 Mcdford Street, Maiden, writes : — 



I have lived here six years, and never noticed llie moth until 

 1898. We did not have it in 1897. The pear trees were the 

 only ones touched, but the caterpillars ate the leaves off from 

 them. The leaves came out again, and there were some blossoms, 

 but they did not blossom as they would if the leaves had not been 

 eaten. Then the caterpillars came and ate the trees bare again, 

 so that they looked as they do in winter. We did not get a bit of 

 fruit from any of them this year. The house was covered with 

 these caterpillars, and they even came into my kitchen. 1 had to 

 gather them up and burn them. I used to sweep them up by 

 hundreds and burn them with oil. 



Nicholas Fleming, corner of Kent and Beacon streets, 

 Somerville, says : — 



We first noticed the In-own-tail moth two years ago (1896). We 

 got no fruit that year, and we have not had a pear this year. The 

 strippnig tlid not seem to kill the trees, they leaved out again. 

 My sons spent all the spare time they had in picking off the cater- 

 pillars and killing them with kerosene. This summer the insects 

 bothered us considerably in the apple trees. The currant bushes 

 were eaten both years. A small gra[)e-vine was badly eaten, and 



