50 STATE POMOIvOGICAI, SOCIETY. 



whole force onto that infestation, used seven barrels of kerosene 

 to spray and then set them afire. There were no trees; it was 

 low shrubbery, sweet fern and this ground hemlock and bay- 

 berry bushes in a pasture. A stone wall lined each side of the 

 road. They were on both sides. Such effective work was done 

 at that time that when Dr. Howard was here he made the remark 

 that we were doing the best work that was being done. Later 

 on we had one of the best spies or scouts in Massachusetts come 

 down and scout that territory around this section that we had 

 burned. The man said that if he could afford it he would give 

 one hundred dollars in cash if he could find a number of the 

 gypsy egg clusters, because he wanted to prove that we didn't 

 do good work, or that it couldn't be done ; and you can imagine 

 that he did his duty in scouting with his men. They went over 

 the territory and went into the woods beyond and all around it 

 and hunted and hunted everywhere, with the result of only one 

 egg cluster under a rock way back from the territory burned. 

 Just one egg cluster out of one million almost full grown cater- 

 pillars that were destroyed. 



Now by accident, only a short time ago, one of our best scouts 

 in passing through a wooded section of three hundred acres of 

 forest growth discovered the egg clusters of the gypsy in abun- 

 dance. We had already discovered two or three new ones, but 

 I will simply refer to this one. I am taking too much time, but 

 I want you to realize the importance of this and the seriousness 

 of it, and to use your influence in every way possible to see that 

 the work is carried on by proper means, and that some arrange- 

 ment can be made whereby our appropriation will not be cut 

 short until the work is done. 



As soon as this infestation was discovered the head field agent 

 at Boston was notified and more help asked for. We had 

 secured eleven scouts before that from the national government. 

 The national government has a fund for this work of $150,000- 

 and we are entitled to a part of it, so that we secured eleven men. 

 I went right to Boston and asked for more men and I had the 

 promise last week of twelve more men from the government. 

 We took all of our men and put them in with the others. Now 

 what is the result of that new find? — these nests that I have 

 referred to on twelve different varieties of trees. As a result 

 of this inspection so far we have taken 2,662 egg clusters in this 



