86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



felt by the committee of arrangements that this was a very 

 important matter to the people of this State, and that the 

 Board of Agriculture, as the work is now under its control, 



should understand more about it. 



The gypsy moth, as 1 presume you all know from the 

 accounts which have been published in the papers, came 

 from Europe. A number of the insects were brought here 

 more than twenty years ago by a Frenchman, who proposed 

 to conduct some experiments in crossing them with silk- 

 worms. Unfortunately, a few of the insects made their 

 escape, and remained in the lowlands and swamps about 

 Medford for a dozen years, without attracting attention from 

 any one. Then the people of that part of Medford began to 

 notice their depredations, and made somewhat of a desultory 

 fight against them, supposing they had only an American 

 caterpillar to deal with; but in June, 1889, it had so far 

 progressed into the uplands of Medford that the people 

 became alarmed, and the town authorities took some meas- 

 ures to keep it down. Mr. John Stetson of Medford, who 

 took a great interest in the public affairs of the town, 

 had taken advantage of every possible opportunity to find out 

 what the creature was. He could find nothing that was 

 satisfactory in American books on entomology, and he 

 brought specimens of the caterpillar into the office of 

 the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, to get 

 information. We were as badly at fault as he was ; our 

 books gave us no information about it, and we sent the 

 specimens to the Agricultural College, where the experience 

 and skill of Professor Fernald and his assistants enabled 

 them to tell us that it was the Ocneria dispar of Europe. 

 Investigation followed, and we ascertained how the creature 

 got here, and the damage that was likely to come from it. 

 It was then too late in the season to do anything. The Legis- 

 lature w r as not in session, and the town of Medford had 

 expended all the money it thought advisable to save the 

 shade trees for the time being. The caterpillars had passed 

 through their transformations, and the eggs had been laid. 

 No more damage would be done that season, and con- 

 sequently aetion was delayed until the Legislature met in 

 1890. Then the Board of Agriculture, with others, by peti- 



