Report of the State Entomologist 181 



the direction of the Hassachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 

 for its extermination while within the limited locality of the 

 northeastern part of the State, where it is at present confined. 



This is the fourth year of active operations against this insect 

 under annual appropriations by the State Legislature, which 

 have now amounted in the aggregate to $275,000. 



In June last an invitation was extended to me by the com- 

 mittee of the State Board of Agriculture to visit the infested 

 district in company with the State Entomologists of adjoining 

 States, for the purpose of inspecting the work of the committee, 

 and to offer such suggestions or criticisms as it might be thought 

 proper to make. 



Every facility was afforded for thorough examination, such as 

 witnessing the field operations of spraying, kerosening and burn- 

 ing rocky and waste places ; banding and liming trees for pre- 

 venting the ascent of the caterpillars ; personal inspection of the 

 present condition in most of the twenty towns in which the 

 insect has occurred ; the experimental work being conducted at 

 the Insectary at Amherst, in testing the susceptibility of the larvae 

 to various insecticides, and the study of the life-history of the 

 insect and its habits ; the method of recording by the office staff 

 the field observations made by the force of nearly two hundred 

 employes ; the various instruments and appliances used in the 

 field-work, with the manner of their use, etc., etc. 



The inspection was very satisfactory and gratifying and at the 

 same time instructive, as showing what may be done in arresting 

 insect depredations when the task would seem almost a hopeless 

 one. I had not expected to find that such progress had been 

 made toward the extermination of the myriads of the notorious 

 gypsy moth. It was a surprise to me that in the brief space of 

 three years, the fearful ravages of the insect, as described to me 

 and as pictured in photographs, could have been reduced to such 

 a degree of comparative harmlessness, that to the ordinary 

 observer no indication of its presence was visible ; and in a ride 

 of an entire day though several of " the worst infested towns," 

 including a visit to localities which had been frightfully scourged, 

 not a single example of the larva could be found by me, although 

 diligent search for it was made. 

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