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from $10 to $100 in the control of the gypsy and brown-tail moths. 
Nearly every town corporation has made expenditures of from a few 
hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for the same purpose. A 
number of experts, or foresters, have gone into the business of clear- 
ing the premises of individuals of gypsy and brown-tail moths, and 
find constant employment for considerable forces of men. In general 
this work is excellently done. The chief difficulty, however, is that 
this and other work against the moths is scattering or patchy; in 
other words, while some take good care of their property, others give 
no attention to theirs, thus leaving numerous spots for the unchecked 
multiplication of the pests. The result is, that while practically as 
much money is now being expended as was formerly spent by the 
State, the results are by no means comparable, from lack of general 
direction and uniformity. 
As a consequence of the general reduction in the number of gypsy 
moths at the close of the work by the State, for the first two years 
very little notable damage was exhibited in either the woodlands or 
the residential districts. In September, 1902, the writer made a 
rather careful survey of the worst gvypsy-moth regions, in company 
with Mr. A. H. Kirkland, former entomologist of the gypsy moth 
committee. At this time very little damage in the way of actual 
stripping of considerable areas of woodland was to be seen. <A few 
comparatively small areas of actually-defoliated woodland were 
found, and the general presence of the moth was noted in the central 
residential districts always worst infested, but even here there was 
very little actual stripping. There was ample evidence, however, that 
the moth was on the increase, and promise of considerable damage in 
the immediate future. The comparatively little injury in the wood- 
lands in 1902 was a matter of surprise, and the suggestion was made 
by Mr. Kirkland that this had probably resulted from the attack of 
birds and other natural enemies. The greater scarcity of such nat- 
ural means of control in the residential districts was suggested as the 
explanation for the greater infestation here noted. 
The conditions found in 1902 scarcely prepared the writer for the 
status shown in the course of the investigations just completed. Dur- 
ing the years 1903-4 the gypsy moth had evidently made extraordi- 
nary progress, and a condition of infestation and defohation or strip- 
ping was found which the writer had never before seen in the gypsy- 
moth region, and which was undoubtedly many times greater than in 
the worst of the earlier years of gvpsy-moth damage. 
In company with Mr. A. H. Kirkland, as assistant and guide, the 
writer made a thorough investigation of substantially all of the 
regions about Boston known to-have been infested by the gypsy moth 
in 1900, and of certain new colonies which have been discovered since 
that time. On one occasion we were accompanied by the gypsy moth 
