THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH. 
147 
The efficiency of their destruction was well shown in the 
City of Somersworth during the past summer. The city 
and private property owners had done most excellent work 
the previous winter in destroying the webs, but in one or 
two cases the ignorance or obduracy of the property owner 
prevented the destruction of the webs by the city em- 
ployes. In one small yard with scarcely a dozen fruit 
trees where the webs were not destroyed the caterpillars 
appeared in such numbers that every apple tree was 
Fig. 31.— Pear tree defoliated bythe caterpillars of the Brown-Tail Moth. The webs 
on the trees in the background were destroyed the previous winter. Photograph 
taken at Vine Street, Somerville, Mass., May 27,1897. (After Fernald and Kirkland.) 
absolutely defoliated and were gathered by the peck at 
the bases of the trees. Thorough spraying of the trees 
with arsenicals and spraying the caterpillars which had 
crawled on neighboring fences and houses with pure kero- 
sene, destroyed most of them. But the expense was ten 
fold what it would have been to have pruned off the webs 
in winter, and enough caterpillars escaped destruction to 
reinfest the whole community. In another case a limb of 
a large apple tree (Fig. 32, a) overhung a neighbor's yard 
in such a way that it was difficult to remove the nests with- 
