1902.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 87 



Nursery inspection for Massacliusetts is one of the duties 

 of the entomological division of the station, and re(|uires a 

 total of two or three weeks' time each year. The results 

 of this work are of direct value to the nurserymen only, but 

 in an indirect way lead not onh^ to a more careful watch of 

 the nurseries by their owners, but to the utilization of the 

 facilities of the experiment station as a place of inquiry and 

 reference on subjects connected with insects and plant dis- 

 ease, thus bringing the station into touch with an occupation 

 where its services are of great value. 



Insects of the Year. 



The year has not been marked by the unusual abundance 

 of any particular insect, except, perhaps, the elm-leaf beetle 

 in the eastern part of the State. This insect has been injuri- 

 ously abundant in the Connecticut valley for a number of 

 years, but has failed to make its presence felt in the more 

 eastern cities and towns until recently. During the past 

 summer, however, it has made havoc with the foliage of the 

 elms in hundreds of places, and caused a large amount of 

 correspondence with this division, while much of what has 

 been published in the newspapers concerning this insect 

 consisted of remedies and methods of treatment which were 

 inefficient or utterly worthless. 



The brown-tail moth has increased in abundance, and in 

 the area which it occupies, until it is probably present in 

 more than twelve hundred square miles in this State, and 

 has extended into Maine and New Hampshire. While in 

 some ways it is an easy insect to control, the assurance that 

 no concerted action will ever be taken by all those persons 

 on whose trees it is present renders it certain that it will 

 remain an important pest ; while the serious nature of the 

 irritation caused by the spines of the caterpillars when they 

 touch man has already been a source of much discomfort in 

 the localities where it is most abundant. 



The gypsy moth has reappeared at those points in the 

 State where the work of the gypsy moth committee was 

 unfinished when its functions were ended two years as'o. It 

 is but a question of time when the area from which it had 

 then been exterminated will become reinfcstcd. The entire 



