No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 347 



your committee has gladly co-operated with the Park 

 Commission, in order that the objects of both bodies might 

 be successfully attained. It is perhaps well to indicate, 

 however, that the work against the moth in all woodland 

 parks must be performed at an increased expense over that 

 on similar infested areas held by individuals, where it is not 

 always necessary to preserve the shrubbery and underbrush. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the work against the gypsy 

 moth was begun under a misconception of the size of the 

 infested area, and has been handicapped and imperilled by 

 reduced and delayed appropriations, constant progress, on 

 the whole, has been made toward the desired end. It is, 

 however, but just to say that, supported by the liberal ap- 

 propriations of the past two years, nearly as much progress 

 has been made toward the extermination of the moth as in 

 the entire seven years previous to 1898. These appropria- 

 tions have enabled your committee to carry out in nearly 

 all their details the plans for dealing with the entire infested 

 area, and the results now apparent fully justify the liberal 

 financial policy of the Legislatures of 1898-99. Had there 

 ever been any doubt as to the complete possibility of exter- 

 minating the gypsy moth, it would have been dispelled by 

 the results obtained during the past two years. 



Under the former system of reduced and delayed appro- 

 priations, it was practically impossible to prevent the in- 

 crease of the moth in certain parts of the infested district 

 while the work of reducing its numbers was going on in 

 other parts. When special attention was paid to the reduc- 

 tion of the moth in the outer towns, the inner towns were 

 necessarily neglected, thus affording centres of infestation 

 from which the insects could again spread into the outer 

 areas which had been cleared ; in fact the rapid multiplica- 

 tion of the numbers of the moth in the central woodlands in 

 the years 1895-97 resulted in serious devastation of these 

 wooded areas, and menaced the success of the entire work. 

 In 1896-97 there were in the infested district woodland areas 

 containing gypsy moth egg-clusters best numbered by mil- 

 lions. In the woodland colonies of Saugus alone, for exam- 

 ple, in the winter of 1896-97 approximately one million 

 egg-clusters were killed by hand, while perhaps as many 



