382 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



defoliation of trees is of rare occurrence, the large colonies 

 have been reduced, hundreds of smaller colonies exter- 

 minated, and the increase of the pest controlled and 

 checked. It is true that during the years 1894-96 a large 

 and formidable multiplication in the numbers of the moth 

 took place in the woodland colonies ; but this, as has been 

 repeatedly pointed out in previous reports, was due to the 

 diminished appropriations of those years, which prevented 

 the destruction of the moth in such localities. During the 

 past two years, however, with more liberal appropriations, 

 the lost ground has l^een regained, and a noticeable and 

 gratifying reduction of the moth throughout the entire 

 infested district has been secured. Thus the success of the 

 work of the State against the moth finds a complete demon- 

 stration in the conditions which exist to-day in the infested 

 territory. 



This brings us to the counting of the cost. If the sum 

 needed for the operations of 1900 be made available promptly, 

 it can be well expended in persistent, thorough-going work 

 over the entire infested district, — an effort whose effective- 

 ness and importance will be at once apparent. The infes- 

 tation now consists of many small, scattered colonies, for 

 whose extermination a large amount of skilled labor will be 

 required. Trained labor commands a somewhat higher price 

 than the untrained ; and thus in the final stages of the work 

 the relative expense for the number of moths destroyed will 

 be somewhat larger than in the earlier years, where the 

 greater proportion of labor was utilized in the wholesale 

 killing of the moths. 



Concernino; the damao:e the moth would cause should it 

 become disseminated over the State, the estimate of Professor 

 Fernald, $1,000,000 per annum, seems to the writer to be 

 sufficiently conservative. This loss will fall with the greatest 

 force upon the farming class. It will affect the owners of 

 shade and ornamental trees and shrubs. Municipalities will 

 suffer through the devastation of the trees in parks and along 

 the streets. The burden will also be felt locally in the in- 

 creased price of agricultural products in those regions where 

 damage by the moth is greatest. 



The problem of the relation of the gypsy moth to the prop- 



