38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



eaten every green thing in tracts of land larger than New 

 England ; and, because they could not move to new fields, 

 they actually died of starvation in such quantities that their 

 dead bodies caused such a stench that the government had 

 to come to the rescue, for fear it would breed a pestilence. 

 In France, Germany and Russia, authorities are a unit in 

 telling how orchards are bereft of every leaf and bud, and 

 that forests are as bare in June as January. They also tell 

 us how the gypsy moth is a veritable plague to agriculture, 

 how the hopes of orchardists and agriculturists are destroyed 

 and how people are actually driven from their homes. A 

 distinguished German authority says, "Of destructive cater- 

 pillars the gypsy moth may be mentioned first, as being the 

 largest and most ravenous." 



I have mentioned a few things to show what this pest is 

 doing in his native land. Now, the question is. Will he be 

 as destructive in the United States? We were told last 

 winter by scientific men that an insect transported to another 

 country, if he thrives at all, thrives better in the new than 

 in the old ; and our experience with the gypsy moth proves 

 the assertion. What shall the State of Massachusetts do with 

 this enemy of the tiller of the soil? Three propositions 

 cover the whole ground : first, do nothing ; second, keep him 

 where he is ; third, exterminate him. There were three dis- 

 tinct classes of persons that came before our committee, the 

 most of whom advocated the first proposition, — that is, do 

 nothing ; let every individual care for his own premises, A 

 few advised a small appropriation, — "just enough to hold 

 them in check," was the way they expressed themselves. 

 But the end aimed at by all these was the same, namely, to 

 throw the burden onto the farmer. 



Some of these were persons of such a peculiar make-up, 

 whose reasoning was so defective, whose conclusions were so 

 erroneous and whose statements were so near misstatements, 

 that they helped the cause they came to destroy. Let me 

 give you two samples of their statements. One accused the 

 employees of transplanting the moths, and, when pressed for 

 a reason said: "A gang of men came to my orchard, and 

 one of the men marched to a certain tree on which were 

 moths, therefore he must have put them there." The fact 



