No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 295 



an extent as to cause the entire destruction ot the fruit crop and also 

 to defoliate the shade trees in the infested region, is sufficient cause for 

 alarm. The citizens of Medford are immediately interested, but the 

 entire Commonwealth and country are threatened with one of the worst 

 insect pests of all Europe." * No one who has not witnessed the vast 

 increase and the insatiable voracity of the caterpillars of this moth in 

 this coimtry can appreciate the dangerous character of the pest, ^^^lere 

 they are allowed to go on unchecked, they strip trees, shrubs, vines and 

 vegetables of their foliage, and will even gnaw the stems and twigs. 

 Their numbers and appearance at such times are well described by Mr, 

 J. O. Goodwin, in the " Medford Mercury " in 1890 : " After devastating 

 my neighbor's trees, they marched in myriads for my premises, fairly 

 covering the fences, houses, outbuildings, grass land, currant bushes 

 and concrete driveways with their trooping battalions." Again he says : 

 " The number of worms cultivated on the three or four worthless trees 

 on the premises adjacent to my own is astonishing ; numbers fail to 

 convey an adequate idea. The earth seemed to be covered with them." 



From the experience with other introduced insects we are led to 

 believe that the unchecked dissemination of this pest, if allowed to 

 continue, will prove a great, growing and enormously expensive evil. 

 As in the past, the efforts of small land owners would not be sufficient 

 to protect their orchards, shade trees and gardens from the vast hoards 

 that would breed unmolested in the woods. 



As the moth is distributed in a great measure by vehicles, it makes 

 its appearance first where teams stop, and begins its work of destruction 

 in the door-yard, orchard and garden. Thus the danger to the Ibrest, 

 in case the moth were allowed to propagate imchecked, would be com- 

 paratively remote. As the apple tree is one of its particular favorites, 

 there would be another dangerous jjest added to those which now sap 

 the life of this tree. If the trees were banded, the caterpillars would 

 attack the currant, quince, rose, cabbage and other garden plants. No 

 doubt the people would learn in time how to destroy them. In fact, the 

 results of the investigations and experiments made imder the direction 

 of the committee would, if published in full, give information which 

 would be most useful in dealing with this and some other pests ; but the 

 expense would then, as now, fall on the people of the State ; it would 

 at first fall heavily on a few, and would grow greater and more widely 

 distributed year by year. 



The Colorado potato beetle {Doryphora 10-lineata, Say), which has 

 done many millions of dollars' worth of damage in this country, was at 



• Prof. C. H. Fernald in Spec. Bull. Hatch Exp. Sta., Amherst, 1889. 



