\<». 1.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 461 



as compared with the number taken in past years, it will re- 

 quire a great deal of labor to exterminate the gypsy moth 

 from these woods. 



Medford. 



Owing first to the delay in making the appropriation and 

 finally to the almost continuous wet weather which followed, 

 it was impossible in the spring of 1898 to burn over the 

 ground in many of the worst-infested colonies in the Med- 

 ford woods. This was particularly unfortunate, as the 

 result showed that the eggs of the moth were very numer- 

 ous among the dead leaves, loose rocks and other rubbish on 

 the ground. A great deal of money was expended here in 

 burlapping and spraying in 1897, and also in destroying 

 the eggs on the trees. This work occupied, until snow came, 

 all of the time of the few men whom it was possible to 

 employ here with the reduced appropriation made in 1897, 

 so that it was impossible to burn over the ground in the 

 fall. As it was also impossible, for reasons previously 

 given, to burn over the ground in the spring of 1898, the 

 young caterpillars came up from the ground in large num- 

 bers ; and, as a consequence, notwithstanding all the work 

 done in these woods in 1897, the caterpillars were more 

 numerous in 1898 than in 1897. It was necessary to keep 

 100 men at work in Medford all summer killing the cater- 

 pillars. They were killed in such enormous numbers that 

 an estimate could hardly be made of the number destroyed. 

 The result of this work, however, is that there is now hardly 

 one egg-cluster on the trees, where there were thousands in 

 1897. The work of burning over the ground, which, for 

 reasons given above, could not be done in the spring, was 

 begun in July while the caterpillars were pupating. The 

 ground was burned over with oil-spraying machines. As 

 much of this work came within the limits of the Metropoli- 

 tan Park reservation, every care was taken to preserve the 

 trees, especially the pines. 



The value of the work done during the season in Medford 

 is indicated by the difference between the number of egg- 

 clusters killed in 1897 and those found in 1898. The figures 

 show that there was a decrease in the various colonies of 



