394 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Field Meetings of the State Grange, 

 The field meetings of the State Grange that have been held 

 during the summer months for the past two years in various 

 parts of the State have been exceptionally interesting, and 

 without doubt have served to stimulate the interest of our 

 farmers in all the movements that have been inaugurated in 

 the interest of rural progress. 



While the discussions at these meetings covered many fields 

 of public endeavor, it was gratifying to note the deep interest 

 that was manifested in the talks given on forestry by State 

 Forester F. W. Rane and Sec. C. 0. Bailey, who were speakers 

 at several of these meetings. 



The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science con- 

 vened at Washington, D. C., November 11, and the Massa- 

 chusetts State Forester delivered the following paper before 

 said society : — 



What Massachusetts has accomplished for Science in her Fight 



AGAINST THE GyPSY AND BrOWN-TAIL MoTHS, 



The pages of universal history may be scanned in vain for a record of 

 a war between nations which has not resulted in new inventions or dis- 

 coveries that have served to advance civihzation, — discoveries that were 

 made possible by the exigencies of the times. This progressive knowledge 

 has become the bulwark of the development and stability of the nations 

 of the earth. In her war against the gypsy and bro'^vTi-tail moths, the 

 experience of Massachusetts has not been at variance with past history. 

 • Throughout the long and costly struggle to save our forest and shade 

 trees from being completely destroyed by these voracious insects, inven- 

 tive iriinds, as in other wars, have been studiouslj^ engaged in developing 

 better and more destructive methods of warfare, from which a permanent 

 addition to science has resulted. 



The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has placed all science in its debt 

 by the interesting and successful experiments which it has carried on in 

 the importing and breeding of parasites and other natural enemies which 

 prey on the gypsy moth and the brown- tail moth. This work was inaugu- 

 rated on a large scale in co-operation with the United States Department 

 of Entomology in 1905, shortly after the Commonwealth had for the 

 second time undertaken to suppress these two insects. The work has 

 been attended with a large measure of success, and during its prosecu- 

 tion various interesting scientific discoveries have been made in regard 

 to these insects and their life-history, and also in regard to the life-history 

 of their various parasites and related insects. 



