No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 301 



Arlington, Chelsea, Everett, Maiden, Meclford, Melrose, 

 Revere, Saugiis and Somerville. The moth in these towns 

 should be l)rought to the verge of extermination so that, with 

 an appropriation of $100,000, the work of 1896 would be 

 quite likely to bring them very near to the condition of the 

 cleared towns. During all this time a large amount of this 

 money must be expended in closely inspecting the towns 

 "supposed to be cleared. In 1897 an appropriation of $50,000 

 would be necessary to provide for the completion of the work 

 in the last-mentioned towns and for the necessary careful 

 reinspection of the whole territory. We think this appro- 

 priation would also provide means to stamp out any possil>lo 

 remains of colonies supposed to be exterminated that might 

 be found by the careful reinspection. For the five succeed- 

 ing years Ave l)elieve that an average annual appropriation 

 of $25,000 would be necessary to continue the careful inspec- 

 tion of the whole territory and provide the means to deal 

 with any colonies that may possibly have been overlooked. 

 While it is our opinion that it is quite possible to extermi- 

 nate the moth if large appropriations, such as have been 

 mentioned, are granted for the next few years, we believe it 

 also probal)le that should an appropriation of only $50,000 

 per year be granted the work would have to be continued 

 Indefinitely, as a very large proportion of such an appropri- 

 ation would necessarily be expended in watching the outside 

 territory and taking measures to prevent the spreading of 

 the insect. 



Another method of estimating the probable future cost of 

 extermination would be to multiply the average cost of ex- 

 termination per estate in the towns already cleared by the 

 number of estates still infested. We estimate the number 

 of estates still infested at eight thousand. Our records 

 show that the average cost of extermination, per estate, in 

 the towns cleared has been $11.10. At the same rate, the 

 cost of exterminating the moth from eight thousand estates 

 would be $328,800. This statement is made on the assump- 

 tion that the estates yet infested are now in no worse con- 

 dition than were those wliich have been cleared. This 

 computation does not include the large sum which nmst 

 necessarily be expended in inspecting territory already 



