No. 4.] AYORK OF GYPSY MOTH COMMITTEE. 245 



to have always proved to be some other species, and, so far 

 as we have been able to ascertain, the assertion that was 

 made last year that the dissemination of the moth was 

 stopped seems verified by the results of this season's inspec- 

 tion. The few years previous to the year 1890 were un- 

 doubtedly the years of its greatest spread. 



The results of the work cannot be given here in detail, for 

 lack of time, but may be stated in a general way. Fifty 

 townships have been quite thoroughly searched, and the 

 insect has been found in thirty of them. In some towns 

 they have been locally exterminated, and in three they are 

 entirely destroyed so far as we are able to determine by a 

 careful search at the present time. Owing to lack of suffi- 

 cient funds, we have been obliged to neglect certain locali- 

 ties and have been able to do all that was necessary in a few 

 towns only. We have undoul)tedly checked the increase of 

 the moth, and have reduced their numbers ninety-nine per 

 cent from what they were in the spring of 1890. It mustnot 

 be forgotten, however, that it will probably take more time 

 and cost more to find and destroy the one than it did to 

 dispose of the ninety and nine. 



The Outlook. * 



No one who has not had practical experience in this 

 field can appreciate the extreme difficulty of carrying this 

 undertaking to a successful issue. The first and greatest 

 obstacle to success is our own ignorance ; the second is the 

 lack of funds necessary to take radical measures ; the third 

 is the prejudice of and lack of co-operation by the people in 

 the infested region ; the fourth, but not by any means the 

 last, is the difficulty of securing trustworthy and competent 

 men. We can now say with becoming humility that we -are 

 possessed of sufficient knowledge to use to advantage any 

 amount of money that the Legislature may appropriate for 

 this work ; and yet we may be al)le at the end of another 

 year's experience to use such funds to still better advantage. 



When the Legislature was asked to make the first appro- 

 priation for the extermination of the gypsy moth, the insect 

 was supposed to be confined to a strip one-half mile wide by 

 two miles long, in the town of Medford. When your com- 



