104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



$1,370. This operation included salaries of engineer, fore- 

 man, one double team, one single team and six laborers. 

 The trees were from 15 to 40 feet in height, and approxi- 

 mately one-third of them were sprayed twice ; thus the cost 

 of once spraying the 8,712 trees was less than 12 cents per 

 tree. 



Mr. Wm. F. Gale, at Springfield, Mass., has had long 

 experience in the work of spraying, and, although he has 

 many very large elms with which to deal, he has reduced 

 the operations to almost an exact science. The figures he 

 kindly gave me are as follows : 



Labor, . f 4,069 00 



Insecticides, 357 00 



Repairs, . . Ill 00 



Interest on investment in outfits, .... 106 44 



$4,643 44 



Number of trees sprayed, 16,000 



Net cost per tree, . . . . . . . $0 29 



Certain large elms at Court Square cost between $10 and 

 $11 per spraying ; but as these trees are of exceptional size, 

 and stand in a busy public square, their treatment was sur- 

 rounded with more than ordinary difficulties. 



While connected with the work against the gypsy moth 

 the writer made a compilation from the daily reports of 

 employees of the cost of spraying 212 large oaks and other 

 open land, first-growth trees, at Brookline, Mass. In this 

 case the laborers were paid a minimum of $2 per day, and 

 the item for supervision was larger than would be necessary 

 in town or park work. The total expense was about 49 

 cents per tree. The cost of spraying 1,500 sprout-growth 

 oaks, ranging from 15 to 40 feet high, at Medford, Mass., 

 was similarly compiled, and found to be 15 cents per tree. 



At Worcester, Mass., the park commission, through its 

 energetic secretary, Mr. James Draper, has waged a thor- 

 oughgoing warfare against the elm-leaf beetle for three years 

 past. The city forester, Mr. Chas. Greenwood, writes me 

 that he never has kept an accurate account of the exact cost 

 of spraying, but estimates it as follows : 



