VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAN. 39 



Board of Agriculture was given charge of the work in 1891, 

 and over one milHon doHar.s were expended within the next 

 ten years in the atteini)t to exterminate the insect. As at 

 tlie expiration of that time all the larger moth colonies had 

 been destroyed, the Legislature, deeming further expendi- 

 ture unwise, gave up the work, despite the protest of the 

 Board of Agriculture, and its prediction that a speedv rise 

 of the moth would follow the cessation of concerted effort 

 against it. This prcdietion has been abundantly fulfiUed, 

 and the policy of the Board has been fully justified. 



Dr. Marlatt, who in 1904 visited the region infested by the 

 moth, reported to the Bureau of Entomology at Washinoton 

 that the people of the infested district were then fi«>htino- the 

 msect at a greater annual cost than that formerly assumed 

 by the State. Since tlu^ State gave up the work, a single 

 citizen, Gen. Sanmel C. Lawrence of Medford, has expended 

 over seventy-five thousand dollars to protect the trees and 

 plants on his estate. 



Finally, in 1905 the Legislature was obliged to renew the 

 fight, and appropriate the sum of three hundred thousand 

 dollars for work against both this insect and another im- 

 ported pest, — the brown-tail moth {Eaprodl^ vln-iixovrheK), 

 which had been introduced into Somerville some time in the 

 latter part of the nineteenth century. 



The State has also been obliged to call on municipalities 

 and individuals to assist in the work of sui)pressing these 

 moths, at an animal expense to those concerned which ex- 

 ceeds all previous yearly expenditures for this })urpose. 



Tliese insects have gained a nmch larger territory than 

 ever before, and thousands of acres of woodland have been 

 attacked by them during the present year (190.')), and many 

 pine and other trees have been killed. 



The gipsy moth has been found in Kliode Island, Connect- 

 icut, and New Hampshire, and the brown-tail moth is also 

 S})reading into other States. 



The prospect now seems to be that our })rotectiye expenses 

 against these two insects, as well as the injury done ))y them, 

 will increase constantly : and that other States also will be 

 put to similar expense, with no prospect of permanent relief 



