386 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Report of Acting Field Director. 



To the Committee on the Oypsy Moth. 



The act making an appropriation of $170,000 for the gypsy 

 moth work in 1899 set aside a sum not to exceed $10,000 

 for use in the destruction of the brown-tail moth. This sum 

 was expended as follows : in April the webs in the worst- 

 infested localities in Maiden were cut off and destroyed ; in 

 June several localities in Medford and Maiden, where the 

 caterpillars were destructively abundant, were sprayed with 

 arsenate of lead with good results. These outbreaks were 

 sufficiently severe to cause much annoyance and considerable 

 damage. Late in November the larger part of the webs in 

 Medford, Maiden and Everett was destroyed. Since it was 

 useless to attempt to exterminate this insect from any one of 

 the cities with the sum at that time available (about $6,000), 

 it was deemed wiser to destroy the large masses of larvae, 

 and in this way, so far as possible, prevent serious damage 

 by the insect in 1900. It did not seem wise to spend time 

 and money in removing the scattered webs from the tops of 

 tall elms, for example, while near at hand on infested pear 

 and apple trees there were thousands of webs from which the 

 following year the insects would develop in great swarms. 

 It thus follows that the work against the brown-tail moth has 

 been merely an attempt at local control, rather than at 



extermination. 



Work Done. 



Trees inspected, 413,758 



Trees sprayed, 2,517 



Trees cut, 4 



Trees trimmed, 4 



Winter webs destroyed (old ) , 13,519 



Winter webs destroyed (new) , 884,480 



In order to work intelligently in the matter, it seemed 

 important to determine the area over which the moth had 



