382 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the beetles. It should be remembered, however, that if poisons 

 are employed the application should be most thorough, and it 

 is probable that an outfit capable of developing a high pressure 

 and delivering an extremely fine, mistlike spray, would give better 

 results than one where the spray is coarser and consequently does 

 not drift in among the leaves to so great an extent. 



Our observations show that it is much better to fight this insect 

 at the outset and prevent serious injury to a vineyard, rather 

 than to take chances and spend three to five years in getting the 

 vines back into fairly good condition, 



Gipsy moth 



Porthetria dispar Linn. 



This introduced pest is well known by reputation throughout 

 the United States, and owing to the discontinuance of exterminative 

 measures in 1900, by the commonwealth of Massachusetts, the 

 insect has been allowed to breed more or less undisturbed in many 

 sections and as a consequence has become exceedingly abundant. 

 This condition of affairs, while primarily affecting the residents 

 of the infested districts, is of much importance to those outside 

 because the danger of the pest spreading into other sections is 

 vastly increased. The injuries in 1903 and 1904 were so severe 

 that there was a strong agitation in favor of the resumption of 

 exterminative or repressive measures, particularly if the general 

 government could be induced to take up the work. The secretary 

 of agriculture, Hon. J. Lewis Ellsworth, has been a prime mover 

 in this matter because he and the members of the State Board of 

 Agriculture are in a position to appreciate the gravity of the situa- 

 tion. Several conferences were called during the summer of 1904, 

 and a number of interested parties visited the infested section in 

 order to gain a better idea of actual conditions. The entomologist, 

 in company with Mr G. G. Atwood of the Department of Agriculture, 

 and several others, went over a portion of the infested section 

 July 20. The party started at Maiden, driving from there to Oak 

 Grove, over into Melrose, then to Medford and back to Maiden, 

 some two hours and a half being spent in the worst infested portions. 

 Generally speaking, most of the street trees and those in private 

 yards showed little evidence of injury by the pest, though occasion- 

 ally a small orchard or a few trees which had evidently been 

 neglected were seriously hurt. The most destruction was in 

 woodlands, where conditions render it much more difficult to 



