No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 437 



employment of these devices, and did not permit of the 

 actual use of all the insecticide purchased. The spraying 

 machine, which, after three years experiment and improve- 

 ment has been finally perfected and adopted in this work, is 

 shown in the accompanying illustration. A detailed de- 

 scription of this machine and its appurtenances, together 

 with cuts of the various novel devices connected with it, 

 appears in the Appendix. 



BURLAPPING. 



The work of the earlier part of the season having par- 

 tially failed of its object on account of legislative delay and 

 bad weather, it became necessary now to strain every nerve 

 to prevent damage by the hordes of caterpillars which had 

 hatched and ascended the trees. A larger amount of burlap 

 was purchased than ever before, — about 54 bales, or 235,- 

 602 yards, — and 1,845,045 trees, included in nearly every 

 colony in the infested region, were burlapped. In those 

 towns which were believed to be most in danger from the 

 distribution of the caterpillars from the central towns, 

 nearly if not quite all the trees were burlapped. The 

 results of the work of the past few years have furnished 

 conclusive evidence that the work of burlapping for cater- 

 pillars, especially in forested lands, is by far the most 

 effectual of any method yet devised for destroying the 

 gypsy moth. All the work of cutting undergrowth, trim- 

 ming, cutting and scraping trees, clearing up rubbish and 

 much of that of burning over the ground contributes to one 

 end, — that of the final destruction of the last gypsy moth 

 caterpillar under the burlap. In the woods the main advan- 

 tage of egg-killing in the fall and winter is to prevent the 

 spread of the moth by greatly reducing the number of 

 potential caterpillars which otherwise would hatch in the 

 following spring. But it is the burlapping which has to be 

 mainly depended upon to compass the destruction of the 

 caterpillars which hatch from egg-clusters not destroyed 

 during the cleaning, and to prevent the laying of more eggs 

 the ensuing fall. To facilitate this work of burlapping, 

 several implements have been devised. Burlap is bought 

 by the bale and has to be cut into strips about a foot in 



