92 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



commission, and the reports of the work are not in a form 

 that can be used in making tables of the kind given below. 

 It would have been almost impossible to keep any accurate 

 account of the immense numbers of the moth destroyed 

 during 1890. This was also true of the first few months of 

 1891. Therefore no figures or estimates of the numbers 

 killed during those years are given in the tables. The 

 egg-clusters destroyed during the first weeks of 1891 were 

 estimated at eight cart-loads. During the latter part of 

 that year a systematic account was kept of the number of the 

 diiferent forms of the moth found on each infested estate, and 

 from that and the other accounts of the season, a somewhat 

 incomplete table of the work of 1891 has been made. A 

 fuller account is given of the work of the succeeding years. 

 Yet even this summary cannot be considered as complete, 

 for the tables pertain mainly to the hand work done annually, 

 and only such figures are given as from their nature can be 

 accurately recorded. Obviously no account could be kept 

 of the number of moths destroyed by spraying, fire and other 

 wholesale measures. 



It will be seen that though a larger number of men was 

 employed in 1893 and 1894 than in 1892, fewer trees were 

 found infested in the later years, although the number of 

 the different forms of the moth killed by hand was larger. 

 This may be chiefly accounted for by the extension of the 

 work into woodlands in the inner towns, where the moths 

 had increased unmolested. In badly infested places in the 

 woods the number of moths per tree was very great. Many 

 caterpillars, pupae and egg-clusters were destroyed in bushes 

 and young growth. This greatly swelled the sum total of 

 forms of the moth destroyed. The larger appropriation of 

 1894 made this woodland work possible. 



