278 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The moth has been exterminated in three hundred and ninety locali- 

 ties. Two hundred and sixty-one of these were fomid and the eggs 

 destroyed in 1891 or in the early spring of 1892, and they have been 

 carefull}- watched the present season. In most of these cases no form of 

 the gypsy moth appeared in these localities during tlie summer, fall or 

 winter of 1891, and none have appeared since. The moth has been 

 exterminated in one hundred and twenty-nine localities by burlapping 

 and hand-killing during the summer. These were all well marked and 

 isolated colonies of the moth. They were all so far from other infested 

 l^laees that their entire extermination seems certain. There are also 

 hundreds of estates which have been cleared of all forms of the moth, 

 but they are so close to other infested grounds that they are not included 

 in this list. There are also many localities where isolated colonies have 

 probably been exterminated during the past summer, but the surround- 

 ings are of such a nature that we do not yet feel certain that this is the 

 case. If nothing should appear in these places or in their vicinity by 

 the first of September, 1893, they may then be added to the list. 



During the fall inspection thirty-eight small and isolated colonies 

 have been foimd in the border towns. These, with one exception, must 

 have been overlooked in the hurried in.spection of December, 1891. The 

 exception was an apparently new colony, consisting of two egg clus- 

 ters, which were fomid on an apple tree under which two doctors and a 

 pedler were accustomed to allow their teams to stand during the sum- 

 mer while -sdsiting houses near by. Most of these thirty-eight colonies 

 are probably exterminated at this time. 



The experience of two seasons has thus proved that it is possible to 

 exterminate the moths locally, and that, while it is almost impossible to 

 destroy them all in one season where they are very numerous, it is quite 

 possible, where tliey are few, to destroy them all in that time. 



The Magnitude of the Undertakivg has not been Generally Appre- 

 ciated. 



From the time of the identification of the first specimen of the gypsy 

 moth in Massachusetts until the present time, the extent of its dis- 

 semination and the effort and expense necessary to control and 

 destroy it have been underestimated. It Avas thought in the spring 

 of 1890 that it was confined to Maiden and Medford, although Pro- 

 fessor Fernald thought it quite probable that it had spread over a 

 larger area, as the following quotation from the " Special Bulletin of the 

 Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College of 

 November, 1889," will show : — 



