620 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



haps, in the summer resorts in New Ham])shire, but fewer complaints 

 are heard of brown-tail rash, and the public press now hardly men- 

 tions it 



FIELD WonK BY STATES. 



The 1911-12 work in Massachusetts has been the continuance of 

 cleaning along woodland roadsides and their care through the cater- 

 pillar season by banding with sticky material and spraying with 

 arsenate of lead. This is the same work that has been in progress 

 for nearly six j^ears. The principal routes of travel have been nearly 

 all covered, and less of this work will be needed during the coming 

 season. It is proposed now to give more attention to an attempt to 

 exterminate the gipsy moth along the western border of the infested 

 region. This work has already Ixien begun, and toAvns on the border 

 have been examined by scouts during the present year and the in- 

 fenced localities have been cleaned up and put in shape for attention 

 during the season. Fifteen to twenty men were kept in the extreme 

 western part of the State most of the winter to examine carefully 

 the Berkshire region for the gipsy moth, which had been discovered 

 there in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in August by men in 

 the employ of the forestry contractor. Most of the work in these two 

 towns has been done by State and town employees. Scouts in the 

 employ of the bureau found the gipsy moth in Great Barrington, 

 which adjoins Stockbridge on the south, in November, 1911. An ex- 

 tensive colony of brown-tail moths was found in North Adams, and 

 this was gone over by employees of the bureau and all winter webs 

 which could be -found (approximately 13,000) were destroyed. Both 

 gipsy moth and brown-tail moth have been found, durirg the past 

 season, close to the New York border. 



In New Hampshire scouting work and creosoting egg-masses was 

 carried on in the early winter, but, owing to deep snow and unusual 

 cold, it was abandoned in January and could not be resumed until 

 April. The outer edge of the infested territory has been carefully 

 worked over, as in previous j^ears. A few towns in the northern and 

 western border, formerly infested with the gipsy moth, have been 

 apparently cleared; none of these insects has been found for two 

 years past. 



In Maine the severity of the winter interfered seriously with work, 

 just as it did in New Hampshire. In January men were transferred 

 from this State to Rhode Island and returned in April. The area 

 infested by the gipsy moth in this State seems to have increased con- 

 siderably during the past year, although not quite so much as in the 

 preceding year. Most of the spread is attributed to the wind, the 

 minute caterpillars floating in from badly infested areas south and 

 west. No large forest areas have been defoliated, and, while the 

 gipsy moth occurs over large areas, little real damage is being done 

 by it. The brown-tail moth situation, however, is perhaps more 

 serious in Maine than in any other State. 



In Ehode Island some ground was lost ; there was no State appro- 

 priation for work in 1911, and no summer work was done. More 

 than 100 employees of the bureau began work in this State in Janu- 

 ary and finished in April. About two-thirds of the State was 

 scouted and approximately 38,000 egg-clusters were creosoted. Five 



