214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pal). Doc. 



previous winter had been stopped by snow. Many of the 

 trees in a small grove were defoliated before the caterpillars 

 were discovered. Immediate steps were taken to destroy 

 them, and in a short time eighteen bushels of caterpillars and 

 19,574 pupae were killed in that locality. 



In some localities, where the caterpillars were found upon 

 valuable ornamental shrubs, hedges or fruit trees, the foliage 

 was sprayed with arsenate of lead. Where it was used at a 

 strength of thirty pounds, to one hundred and fifty gallons of 

 water, the caterpillars disappeared. Spraying with Paris green 

 and other arsenites has long since been given up as ineffective. 



Several outbreaks occurred in the woods within the infested 

 district, to the probable condition of which the attention of the 

 Legislature has been called from year to year by reports of the 

 committee, who have recommended annually for the past three 

 years that appropriations be made large enough to thoroughly 

 inspect these woodlands and check the increase and spread of 

 the moths within them. It has been impossible with the 

 resources provided to protect the cultivated land and the 

 woodland also, as the force of men employed has never been 

 large enough to care for both. It was absolutely necessary 

 that the work should be carefully done in centres of population, 

 in cultivated lands and along highways, so as to prevent a 

 distribution of the moth such as occurred before the State work 

 begun. Before their ravages could be stopped, the gypsy 

 caterpillars had defoliated in June and July several areas of 

 woodland at different localities in Saugus, Medford, Lexing- 

 ton and Woburn, all within the region found infested in 1891. 

 These outbreaks showed that the fears of the committee as to 

 the danger of neglecting the woodland, as expressed in their 

 annual reports to the Legislature, were justified, and were a 

 direct confirmation of the probable results predicted by the 

 committee if the work should be interrupted or stopped. 



The appropriation of 1895, being larger than that of the 

 previous year, made possible the beginning of the long-needed 

 thorough inspection of all the woods in the infested territory. 

 As many trained men as could be spared were detailed for this 

 work. It was begun in June, and has been carried on through- 

 out the summer, fall and winter to January 1. While it was 

 impossible with the means at hand to inspect thoroughly all 



