236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub, Doc. 



Statement of Mr. John A. Bruen, No. 27 Sargent Street, 

 Dorchester, Boston. 



The gypsy moth caterpillars stripped the five trees in our } T ard last 

 summer, not leaving a leaf upon them. It was about the first of 

 June that we first noticed the great number of caterpillars about the 

 place. They were so numerous about the back balcony of the house 

 that we were unable during a good portion of the summer to sit there. 



I used to wash the caterpillars off the trees and house by playing 

 upon them with the hose, but they would immediately crawl up to 

 their former position again. In a crotch in the oak tree growing at 

 the corner of the balcony there was a mass of caterpillars as big as 

 my hat. I turned the hose on them and knocked them off in lumps 

 as big as your fist, but the caterpillars crawled up the tree again with 

 amazing rapidity. 



The caterpillars made considerable noise at night while eating ; it 

 sounded like the clipping of scissors. In the morning the bits of 

 leaves, which the caterpillars had eaten off, made a green carpet on 

 the board walk. After stripping our trees and those on estates ad- 

 joining, the caterpillars began to crawl across the street. They 

 seemed to be migrating in search of food. 



(Signed) John A. Bruen. 



Dec. 31, 1895. 



Statement op Mrs. T. J. Lane, No. 29 Sargent Street, Dor- 

 chester, Boston. 



In June, 1895, our place was black with caterpillars, and the yard 

 was strewn with pieces of leaves which fell from the trees where the 

 foliage was being destroyed by the vermin. We did not know that 

 these were the gypsy moth caterpillars until informed by the em- 

 ployees of the Board of Agriculture. The trees in our yard were 

 eaten entirely bare of leaves. The back of the L and the trees over- 

 hanging it were practically covered with caterpillars. Under the 

 gutter at the corner of the house they lay in one great, long, black, 

 repulsive mass. They lay thick in the gutter, and we played a 

 strong stream on them from the hose, but it did not seem to affect 

 them any. If we went out beneath the trees, we got caterpillars all 

 over us. Before they got their full growth, they would string down 

 in myriads by fine threads. Even when we went along the walk at 

 the side of the house, with no tree within thirty or forty feet, we 

 would still find them floating in the air by their fine, almost imper- 



