VALUE OF BIBBS TO MAN. 39 



Board of Ao-Hculture was o^iven charije of the work in 1891, 

 and over one million dollars were expended within the next 

 ten 3'ears in the attempt to exterminate the insect. As at 

 the 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 speedy rise 

 of the moth would follow the cessation of concerted effort 

 against it. This prediction has been abundantly fulfilled, 

 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 Washington 

 that the people of the infested district were then lighting the 

 insect at a greater annual cost than that formerly assumed 

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

 citizen, Gen. Samuel C. Lawrence of Mcdford, 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 {Eiiprociis cJiri/xorrJiea) , 

 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 suppressing these 

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

 ceeds all previous yearly expenditures for this purpose. 



These insects have gained a much larger territory than 

 ever before, and thousands of acres of woodland have been 

 attacked by them during the present year (1905), and many 

 pine and other trees have been killed. 



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

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

 spreading into other States. 



The prospect now seems to be that our protective expenses 

 against these two insects, as well as the injury done by them, 

 will increase constantly ; and that other States also will be 

 put to similar expense, with no prospect of permanent relief 



