SPECIAL rKol'.LEMS oi" INSKC'I' (ONTKol. 159 



found ill your neighboilKjod. ('oui[)are results of dift'ci-cnt 

 methods of combatiui*' it. From the data obtainal)le can you 

 foretell the probable result? A\ ill the home fruit trees be 

 killed and the fruit industry confined to connnercial orchard- 

 ists who will care for their trees ? 



Gypsy moth. This pest is a European species. It was hi- 

 troduced hito this country in 1809 by a FrencViman who was 



Fig. 78. Outdoor laboratory work 

 Class inspecting a local nursery for San Jose' scale 



attempting to improve our native silkworms. Thr(^ugh acci- 

 dent the insects escaped, but although the fact was reported, 

 the grave danger was not realized until twenty years later. 

 From a single nest in ^fedford, ^Massachusetts, the pest spread, 

 slowly at first, and then like wild lire, over the towns and for- 

 ests of New England. iMillions of dollars have been expended 

 in its control, yet hundreds of acres of forest have been de- 

 stroyed. A report of 1897 says, ''At the present time there 

 can be little doubt tliat the extermuuition of the insect is 



