BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 305 



In New Jersey all the isolated colonies, nine in number, have been 

 given careful attention and no infestation has been found in any of 

 them. These areas will be rescouted next year and treated if in- 

 festations develop. Scouting the woodland north of Somerville was 

 begun in the fall and the whole area was well covered by late spring. 

 Insufficient funds made it impossible to do cutting work on several 

 river-bottom areas that were difficult to treat or spray successfully, 

 but otherwise the program was carried out as planned. 



Spraying was conducted on a larger scale than usual in New 

 Jersey, but was much less effective than was expected, on account 

 of almost continuous and heavy rains during May and June. Great 

 difficulty has been encountered in this State in securing competent 

 men who could be trained to carry on the work. The infested sec- 

 tion of the State is devoted largely to manufacturing and business 

 enterprises, and few competent men can be found who are interested 

 in active outdoor work. It has been necessary to train large numbers 

 of men drawn from the country districts in New England, and at 

 times it has been extremely difficult to maintain an adequate and 

 efficient force. The work has resulted, however, in a sharp decrease 

 in the number of caterpillars over the previous summer. The area 

 over which the infestation extends is slightly larger than last year, 

 but in no place in New Jersey was there any defoliation by the gipsy 

 moth this summer, and the results for the year on the whole have 

 been encouraging. 



New Jersey has expended $125,000 during the year, and close co- 

 operation has existed between the State department of agriculture 

 and the bureau. A quarantine of the infested area has been main- 

 tained by the State, and all shipments likely to carry the gipsy moth 

 to points outside have been inspected and certified before being al- 

 lowed to proceed. The same arrangements have been very effective 

 in the State of New York, where a few small areas are infested. No 

 trace of the insect has been found in the area previously found in- 

 fested in Pennsylvania. 



A limited amount of scouting has been done along the border of 

 the brown-tail moth infestation, and as a result of this work there has 

 been a heavy decrease in the infested area during the year. Two 

 thousand three hundred and forty-two square miles have been re- 

 leased from quarantine in the following States: Maine, 323; New 

 Hampshire, 917 ; Massachusetts, 64 : Rhode Island, 1,038. 



The maximum spread of the brown-tail moth was in 1914, when 

 over 38,000 square miles was infested, including portions of all the 

 New England States and eastern end of Long Island, New York. 

 Now this insect is known to be present only in Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Massachusetts, and the maximum infested area has been 

 reduced 67 per cent. 



The area in New England infested by the gipsy moth and the 

 lirown-tail moth has continued under quarantine and all shipments 

 likely to carry these insects have been inspected and certified before 

 being removed from the infested area. This has been done to safe- 

 guard other sections of the country from long-distance spread of 

 these insects. 



One expert assistant has been sent to Japan and one to Europe 

 to study gipsy-moth conditions and to secure and ship parasites and 

 other natural enemies to America. It was also desired to study the 



