436 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The Spring Inspection. 

 There were in the infested region considerable wooded 

 tracts of land which for lack of money had not been in- 

 spected for the eggs of the gypsy moth for two or three 

 years. In April and early May the examination of these 

 wooded tracts was continued until hatching time. This 

 was done to discover any new colonies, if such existed, 

 and to prevent their increase and spread by destroying the 

 eggs. A large tract in the Lynn woods was gone over in 

 this way, while much work of the same kind was done in 

 Swampscott, Salem, Wakefield, Melrose, Maiden and towns 

 in the Mystic valley. Small colonies were discovered 

 here and there, and everything was done to insure their 

 extermination. 



Spraying. 



The trees in the central colonies having been well cleared 

 of moth eggs, there were still many eggs left on the ground 

 which were not destroyed, owing to the impossibility of 

 burning over this ground before hatching time. There was 

 really no available method except burning which would stop 

 the young caterpillars from climbing the trees and again re- 

 infesting large tracts of woods, the trees in which had been 

 cleared in the fall and winter at great expense. It was too 

 wet in May to do much effective burning. Still, it was 

 hoped that spraying would check attacks on the foliage. 

 This was the only wholesale method that could be used un- 

 til the middle of June, when the caterpillars began to clus- 

 ter under the burlaps. Spraying was begun in the Medford 

 woods and was continued for more than a month, whenever 

 rain ceased to fall long enough to allow the foliage to dry. 

 Wherever spraying with arsenate of lead could be done in 

 dry weather it was very successful, destroying nearly all 

 the caterpillars on low foliage and a large proportion of 

 those on the tall trees. 



Extensive preparations had been made for spraying — 

 nozzles, hose, couplings, pumps and tanks having been in- 

 vented in the preceding two years, and constructed in the 

 machine shop at Maiden especially for use in this work ; 

 but the almost continuous rainy weather prevented the full 



