2 
the very efficient and careful work of the agents of the committee had 
exterminated the moth in many of the restricted outer colonies, 
reduced it to inconsiderable numbers in others, and prevented defolia- 
tion in the more generally infested districts. The policy of the com- 
inittee had been to effect extermination, as fast as possible, in the 
outer portions of the infested region, working gradually inward, but 
at the same time keeping up sufficient work in the central districts to 
prevent any material injury. 
In the prosecution of this work the committee had apparently good 
reason to believe that extermination had been effected in a great many 
isolated colonies, including a considerable number of large and 
important ones, and it was beheved by them that with sufficient funds 
actual extermination of the insect over the entire region of infestation 
would ultimately be accomplished. Whether this was possible or 
not, at least it had been demonstrated that the gypsy moth could be 
exterminated in isolated colonies, and reduced to inconsiderable num- 
bers, or to a status approaching extermination, in areas of more gen- 
eral infestation. 
With the cessation of the operations of the gypsy moth committee 
under State appropriation, the gypsy moth was left to multiply and 
spread at will, save for work undertaken here and there by individ- 
uals, and, in the residential districts, by the local authorities of many 
of the infested towns, the latter work being usually under the charge 
either of tree wardens or of street commissioners. In the case of the 
Fells reservation, also, a good deal of work has been done, especially 
during the last two years, under the general ‘direction of Mr. B. de 
las Casas, chairman of the Metropolitan Park Commission, by Mr. 
Charles F. Price, in charge of the reservation. Other large areas of 
forest infestation, such as those surrounding the Lynn woods, and 
many private estates, have gone practically untreated. In the resi- 
dential districts of some towns very good work has been done, as 
noted, by individuals or the town officials; and, while the gypsy 
moth has not been exterminated in these districts, it has been kept 
down, so that no marked defoliation of street and yard trees has 
resulted. 
The amount expended during the last two years in such work of 
control, judging from careful inquiry and estimate, probably almost 
equals the amount expended by the State during the years of its 
most active operations against the gypsy moth, namely, approaching 
$200,000. A single individual, Gen. S. C. Lawrence, has, for the last 
three years, had a large force of men working on certain gypsy moth 
colonies in his own and adjoining forest lands, expending each year, 
as he assures the writer. more than the actual value of the lands. 
Hundreds of individuals in each town have expended sums ranging 
