Net.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 229 



the worst possible policy, for the reason that it would be so 

 enormously expensive for land owners, as compared with the 

 expense when carried on by the State. 



The value of the taxable property in this State is $2,429, 

 £32,966, and an appropriation of $200,000 is a tax of less than 

 one-twelfth of a mill on a dollar. A man having taxable 

 property to the amount of $5,000 would have to pay a tax of 

 only 41 cents and 6 mills. This beggarly sum of money 

 would make but a small show? in the work of clearing gypsy 

 moth caterpillars from an infested $5,000 farm, while in the 

 uninfested parts of the State the land owners would be paying 

 an exceedingly small premium to the State to insure them 

 against the ravages of the gypsy moth. This premium on a 

 $1,000 farm would be 81 cents, and for fifty years it would 

 amount to only $4.16| cents. This protection would extend 

 not only to farmers and owners of forest lands, but also to 

 residents in villages and cities who own lots with trees and 

 shrubs on them, and to vegetation wherever grown within the 

 limits of our Commonwealth. 



Respectfully submitted, 



C. H. FERNALD. 



