No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 467 



large proportion of the oaks were killed. By reason of its 



long feeding season, the gypsy moth can keep the trees 

 stripped from June to August, and it is this fact mainly 

 which accounts for its abstractiveness. As with the pines, 

 so with the oaks. The defoliation is followed by the inroads 

 of hordes of bark beetles, and these complete the destruction 

 of the trees. Among the oaks the mortality is greatest in 

 the case of the white oak, which is considered the most valu- 

 able tree of all. Nearly all the white oaks which are seri- 

 ously attacked for two years in succession either die or 

 become deformed by dying back from the ends of the 

 branches and sending out shoots from the trunks. What 

 the effect would be should the gypsy moth be allowed to in- 

 crease in our forest reservations, may readily be conjectured. 

 The work of the Board has already saved thousands of 

 fine and valuable trees in the reservations from absolute de- 

 struction. 



The Progress of Extermination. 



In the outer three-fourths of the infested region the gypsy 

 moths are now few and far between. The greatest progress 

 of the year has been made in the Lincoln and Saugus woods.* 



Since 1893 the Saugus woods have been until this year the 

 worst-infested forested tract in the entire gypsy moth region. 

 Another year of such work as has been done the past two 

 years will class Saugus among the outer towns. The moths 

 in the large colonies in the Middlesex Fells region have been 

 reduced 99 per cent. For the first time in any year progress 

 has been made in nearly all the infested region. Progress 

 over the entire region would have been made had the $10,000 

 deducted from the gypsy moth appropriation for preventing 

 the spread of the brown-tail moth been available for use 

 against the gypsy moth. 



It must now be plain to all who have watched the progress 

 of the work, that the plan pursued by the Board of Agri- 

 culture in the years previous to 1898 was the wisest that 

 could be carried out with the limited appropriations granted. 



* Much credit for the excellent work done here is due to Mr. C. E. Bailey, who 

 has had charge of the work in Lincoln, and Mr. Geo. H. Harris, who has been in 

 charge of all the work done in Saugus and the neighboring towns. 



