136 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



of certain experiments to be conducted by Desmond Fitz- 

 gerald, superintendent of the western division of the Boston 

 Water Works. The experiments were designed to ascer- 

 tain the scientific facts and natural laws of evaporation, in 

 out-door situations, and had primary reference to the con- 

 ditions of water supply. To this end they were conducted 

 upon an ample scale ; and among the tests applied, were 

 such as would denote the relative evaporation of cleared 

 surfaces of land, and those which are covered with forest. 

 This latter inquiry was divided into separate observations 

 of forests of evergreen, and those of deciduous trees. Con- 

 temporary records were kept in each case. The outcome 

 of such an investigation would manifestly be of instructive 

 interest to all engaged in problems of practical agriculture, 

 and might disclose facts or laws, a knowledge of which 

 would be of great value to the farmer, and of immediate 

 applicability. The experiments were encouraged by the 

 trustees, by making additional grants of $200 in the latter 

 part of 1884, and $100 in 1889. The best apparatus was 

 obtained, and the observations were continued through five 

 years, together with meteorological observations requisite 

 for comparison. The labor of tabulating and collating the 

 facts for adequate scientific deduction, has not yet been 

 completed, but is in progress. 



On November 8, 1889, the trustees took action for an in- 

 vestigation of the gipsy moth, a destructive insect which 

 had appeared in West Medford, and $225 was voted for 

 printing and distributing in the farming districts, bulletins 

 descriptive of the moth and its habits. Nothing farther 

 was done, it being announced at the next meeting of the 

 trustees, that the State authorities had begun operations for 

 the suppression of the pest. 



Among the minor transactions of the society during the 

 closing ten years of the century, are the advocacy, before 

 committees of the Legislature, of statutes, which eventually 

 were enacted, exempting from taxation for a term of years, 

 new plantations of forest trees, and to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of forests by fires kindled through carelessness or other- 



