No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 367 



the days preceding the beginning of operations by the 

 employees of the Board, report that the rapid progress of 

 the hungry caterpillars from the colony into the unscathed 

 surroundings was astonishing. The spreading of the cater- 

 pillars in their search for food was likened to the fire from 

 a carelessly dropped match eating its rapid way outward 

 over the dry forest floor. 



On July 10, when this woodland colony was first visited 

 by the agents of the Board, the sight presented beggars 

 description. The great majority of the caterpillars, having 

 deserted the stripped tract in their search for food, were 

 massed in wriggling bunches up and down the trunks and 

 along the under sides of limbs of the trees standing on the 

 borders of the newly invaded woodland. The continual 

 dropping of excrement from the masses of caterpillars 

 produced a sound resembling the pattering of rain. But 

 in spite of this exodus, the bare, stripped centre of the 

 colony was by no means deserted by the insects. The 

 comparatively small minority of the caterpillars remain- 

 ing crawled by thousands in all directions in their search 

 for food. Over the bare, unshaded forest floor, and up 

 and down the sun-scorched trunks, even out to the very 

 tips of the branches, the larvas were hurrying; but the 

 pupae outnumbered the larvae, and their brown bunches 

 hung on every hand. The spectacle vividly recalled the 

 almost incredible tales told of the now historic moth-out- 

 break of a decade ago in Medford. The condition of affairs 

 called for drastic measures, especially as the female moths 

 were beginning to emerge and lay their eggs. Fire and 

 the axe were applied, as the most economical and speedy 

 method of dealing with the colony. The trees were felled, 

 and thrown with their festoons of pupfe and clusters of 

 eggs, into bonfires ; the flame of the cyclone burner was 

 applied to ground, ledges and walls, and all remains of the 

 moth were done away with. 



The Long Hill colony, which was of considerable size at 

 its height, is situated in the eastern part of Georgetown, at 

 the Rowley line. Since the obliteration of the heart of the 

 colony, the work of the latter part of the year has been 

 chiefly confined to thinning out woodland, by felling a large 



