424 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



no money was provided to carry out this section of the law. 

 The secretary of this Board, however, took the responsi- 

 bility of performing the various duties by this law imposed 

 upon him as executive officer of the Board, and the 

 expenses were paid from the incidental fund ordinarily used 

 for other purposes. It was hoped that, even though the 

 spread of the moth had not been stopped as it might have 

 been, had an appropriation been provided and put at once 

 in charge of the Board of Agriculture, individual effort 

 might serve to hold the increase of the moth in check. The 

 efforts of the Board aroused the authorities of Somerville 

 and Cambridge to action, and, as these were the cities most 

 infested, it was hoped that their energetic action might not 

 only check the increase of the moth within their limits, but 

 also prevent its spreading widely. The authorities of Som- 

 erville and Cambridge placed the enforcement of the law in 

 the hands of the local police ; and, as the appropriation for 

 the gypsy moth work became exhausted about the time the 

 brown-tail moth law was being enforced in these cities, 

 many of the gypsy moth employees secured employment in 

 destroying the webs on the trees, either for private owners 

 or for the municipalities. Thus a force of expert men was 

 placed at the disposal of all those inclined to comply with 

 the law. The conditions, therefore, for a thorough test of 

 the result of the workings of such a law were ideal. That 

 the result was very unsatisfactory is now shown by the 

 refusal of many property owners to comply with the require- 

 ments of the law ; by the failure of the city authorities to 

 prosecute such people for their negligence ; by the conse- 

 quent spread of the moth from place to place, because no 

 work was done in places adjoining those which had been 

 carefully cleared, so that the infested area in these cities is 

 now fully as large as in 1897 ; by the spread of the moth 

 into many other towns outside the region infested in 1897 ; 

 by the repeal of the law of 1897, and the final turning over 

 of the whole matter to the Board of Agriculture. 



The gypsy moth committee had examined considerable 

 territory, to determine the spread of the brown-tail moth ; 

 and, believing that it had spread since the spring of 1897 

 over an area nearly as large as that infested by the gypsy 

 moth, was not inclined to go before the Legislature of 1898 



